By Mustapha Jallow
Residents of Brikama-Wellingara have complained that the street stand pipes which the Brikama Area Council promised to 
re-open are still closed.
This prompted this reporter to re-visit the place on 11 November, 2015, to investigate the matter. These street standpipes were closed weeks ago apparently due to arrears owed to NAWEC, but the council later agreed to arrange for the re-opening the public standpipes. However they are yet to be re-opened since this decision was made last week.
According Ndey Fatty, an affected resident who earlier told Foroyaa about the closure of the taps, getting water is a nightmare. She said they’ve met the council since but nothing has been done yet.
“We’ve done what the council told us to do but we have not see any new development yet; but we are still waiting for them to quickly restore our services,’’ she said. She said as for now they will continue begging for water from the neighbours.
Another resident expressed similar sentiments.
The residents called for the urgent restoration of the standpipes.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the public relation officer of Brikama Area Council Mr Modou Jonga, informed this reporter that the council had already provided a list to NAWEC and that NAWEC told them that they would send a service team to restore the service. He also referred this reporter to NAWEC for further comments.
Mr. Pierre Sylva, the Public Relation Officer (PRO) of NAWEC, declined to comment. He saw no need for the affected people to be reporting their problems to Foroyaa. He said that the affected residents should report the matter to NAWEC.
In earlier reports, a resident by the name, Mrs. Kumba Bah told Foroyaa that the closure of public tabs provide water for domestic and other essential purposes for residents who are low and average earners, and that as such it was impossible for them to install taps into their own households; that apart from this it would take time to install if a request is made. She added that they solely rely on public taps to have access to clean drinking water.
