The Board of Directors and Management of Guma Valley Water Company on Friday 10th June 2022 appreciated the contribution of Kobi Bentley, Development Director at the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (formerly DFID) to the successful implementation of the Freetown Water Supply Rehabilitation Project sponsored by UK Aid.
At a brief ceremony held at the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office at Spur Road, the Ag. Managing Director of Guma, Ing. Francis Lahai said the replacement of the Scour Valve at the Guma Dam has resulted in 6 million litres of water being saved every day and this has led to the reservoir maintaining a 4 feet level compared to the same period last year.
Ing. Lahai explained that there are some minor water sources projects on the table awaiting funding and requested that the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office should consider taking up one or two of them and bring them to reality.
The Chairman of the Board Technical Committee, Ing. Alhaji Mohamed Timbo said they were very extremely grateful to the management of the Foreign Commonwealth Office for the continuation of the project during a period when the UK Government cuts its Overseas Development Aid by 0.2% totalling 4.5bn British Pounds due to the Covid 19 situation. Ing. Timbo reiterated that the Guma Board was very impressed with the works done so far which will go a long way to build on the resilience of the infrastructure at the Guma Dam and Treatment Plant and the Transmission network.
In her statement, the Chairman Board of Directors of Guma Valley Water Company, Hon. Bintu Myers said Guma is appreciative of the tremendous and tireless work done under the Freetown Water Supply Rehabilitation project and thanked the Government and People of the United Kingdom for providing the funds and the Government and people of Sierra Leone who highly appreciate the gesture.
Hon. Myers extended thanks to the outgoing FCDO Development Director Kobi Bentley as she ends her assignment in Sierra Leone and wished her the best of luck in her new assignment.
Responding, Kobi Bentley said, “I was always very keen to see the completion of the project or almost nearly completed before I left; despite the setbacks and challenges faced by the project, de-scoping of some of the works packages due to budget constraints as costs get higher and some engineering works turning out to be more challenging than originally envisaged”.
