By Kebba AF Touray
In a bid to address access to quality and portable water for his constituents, National Assembly Member for Wuli East, Hon. Suwaibou Touray has completed the drilling and construction of a borehole for the villagers of Sare Kolli.
The water borehole, which costs D360,000 (Three Hundred and Sixty Thousand Dalasi), was received and welcomed with open arms by the community of Sare Kolli. This gesture will not only address their years of anguish for lacking water, but go a long way to improve their health status and well-being.
The project is one of Hon. Touray’s pledges to render services to his electorate and to improve their living conditions through his National Assembly allowances.
The said company implemented the contract, signed with the GamSolar Company Ltd. According to Hon. Touray, he has initiated his own projects for vulnerable and small communities, such as Sare Kolli, to ease water shortage for people in these communities who suffer the brunt of accessing safe drinking water for themselves and their animals.
According to him, the village of Sare Kolli has a population of about 800 people and an animal population of about a thousand cattle and hundreds of small ruminants. But said the community has always struggles with shortage of clean drinking water.
“This has the tendency to transmit water borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid fever and even hepatitis A and polio,” Hon. Touray said.
He acknowledged that apart from the sanitation challenges, the women and children of the village spend the best part of their day fetching water from deep wells with pulleys using donkeys and horses even though the well occasionally dries up.
He said this impact negatively on the production and leisure time for the villagers, especially the women and children. Hon. Touray said the water project would surely ease the pressure of water shortage on the villagers of Sare Kolli, adding that another project is needed to expand the facility and ensure the distribution of taps adequately within the village to make it easier for women and children to have access to water.
The project, he said, also comprises the provision of tap at the animal drinking point for easy watering of the animals, to ensure that the drudgery, which confronts animal owners in drawing water from deep wells, is addressed.
Hon. Touray reassured that he would continue to seek for support to acquire another project so that there is enough water to cater for a garden, to enable the villagers to produce their own vegetables during the dry season to improve their diets.
“I am determined to come up with more small projects before my term ends in 2027,” Hon. Touray said.
Asked whether he is aware of the water problems in Baja Kunda and Sutukoba, Hon. Touray said he is very much aware of the water crisis in these villages and has started discussions with certain NGOs and philanthropists. He said the prospects are high because help is on the way, adding that such growth centers need giant water facilities to satisfy their populations. He said the Ministry of Water Resources has provided an additional tank, which, if connected, would greatly ease the water shortage for villagers of Baja Kunda.
The community of Sare Kolli, who celebrated with joy their new borehole, described the initiative as a good and benevolent humanitarian gesture that Hon. Touray has for the people of the constituency, with firm interest and commitment.
“This will not only provide and enhance our easy access to water, but it will also contribute significantly to boosting animal husbandry in our village. We are used to facing immense challenges by drawing water from very deep wells, some of which are over 25 meters deep. But with the provision of the borehole, this nightmare is a thing of the past,” the joyful villagers celebrated.
