By Sariba Manneh
The high amounts of Nitrite in the soil in Bundugka-Kunda have caused a huge delay in addressing its longstanding shortage of water, NAWEC and other sources reveal.
According to reliable sources, the National Assembly Member for Bundungka-Kunda, SulaymanJammeh, alongside NAWEC officials was on surveillance with the sole aim of ameliorating the water shortage in Bundung.
However, sources revealed that due to high nitrite concentration in the area, NAWEC was unable to drill a borehole for them.
They added that NAWEC in collaboration with stakeholders is doing everything possible to ensure that the longstanding water crisis is solved.
On Tuesday, 7 November 2023, Foroyaa visited residents of Bundung Borehole to know whether the water shortage affecting them was solved. However, they explained that the water shortage in the area is still persisting.
They described it as a nightmare as it has been affecting them for over a decade now.
Their concerns were echoed in the National Assembly Chambers by the National Assembly Member for BudungkaKunda Constituency, but there has been no solution to the crisis.
One Fatoumatta Drammeh said the lack of water in their area has been mind-boggling and therefore urged the authorities to quickly intervene and address their situation.
Mrs Drammeh attributed the problems confronting her to the water shortage.
“The only time we are able to fetch water is at night when people are supposed to be sleeping, we are busy fetching water because, in daytime, you rarely see water from the taps,” she decried.
She called the daily experience “stressful” because they don’t get to enjoy their sleep, saying “you can’t even sleep comfortably in night because you will have to wake up in the middle of night to fetch water and this disrupts our sleep.”
“This is not our first complaint to the media, we have reported this several times but we still don’t see any positive changes regarding the water shortage in our area,” she said.
Another Bundung resident, BintaTamba, raised similar complaints noting that “sometimes if we oversleep and don’t wake up to fetch water, we end up looking for houses that have a water tank to fetch water from and the tanks don’t always have water. Our NAM dug two boreholes, but those are not suitable for drinking,” she added.
She questioned why other areas enjoy running water 24/7 while Bundung is lagging behind.
“We need water in our daily activities because almost everything we do in the houses requires water, we can’t live without it and all these complaints should not be in vain,” said the Bundung resident. She called on “the people responsible to do something for God’s sake, we are law-abiding citizens, we pay tax and it’s our right to access clean water because it’s not like we’re even begging for it, despite the water shortage we still pay water bills so it’s only fair they provide it,” she said.
She urged the authorities to act quickly to address the water shortage in Bundung.
Expressing her frustration, she exclaimed, “We are tired, we can’t continue to live like this, something has to be done.”
