By Nelson Manneh
Residents of Nema Alkali Village in the West Coast Region, lament the poor supply of water and electricity in their area, from the nation’s utility Company NAWEC.
This reporter visits the area on Wednesday September 18th 2018, and found women with children on their backs, struggling to get water from one of the wells said to have been dug by one good Samaritan, to help them to get water.
Aja Fatou Mboge a resident of the area, said Nema has faced these challenge for the past years; that they invited various stakeholders to come to their aid to no avail.
“Nema Alkali is a community like any other community in the Gambia. We are citizens and we deserve to have all the basic social amenities, like other communities,” she said; that in Nema, few compounds are fortunate to have taps and the rest, fetch water from wells; that sometimes the water from the well cannot be used for drinking and even cooking, because of the pressure put on them, thereby turning the water murky.
Kumba Jarju another resident of the area, was seen and met by this reporter carrying a bucket of water with a baby on her back at the same time. Kumba said Nema seems not to be part of the country, moreover the West Coast Region.
“We cast our votes for this new Government with the hope of changing our basic living conditions for the better, only for it to get worse. Since they came to power, we have not benefited from any basic social amenity like portable water supply, making life very difficult for us,” she said; that sometimes there will be no water in the area for the twenty four hours; that when it comes, some compound owners with taps will not allow them access in fear of high bills from NAWEC
