Sanitation in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone, a country located on southwest coast of West Africa, suffers from a lack of access to clean, safe drinking water and inadequate sanitation provision. It has a population of 7.4m people (BBC 2018).  After the 2002 Civil War, the country has stagnated and become impoverished, with one of the poorest standards of living. There are many struggles to a secure and safe water source. Health problems run riot across the country. UNDP reports that in Human Development Index, Sierra Leone was amongst the world’s poorest countries, ranking 180th out of 187 countries in 2011. It is a struggling country fighting water and sanitation issues. 

Water in Sierra Leone: 

Sierra Leone does have water. The country has a hot and humid tropical climate, which provides annual rainfall, during the months from May to October.  The FAO states it has as average annual rainfall of 2,526mm per year, that ranges from 1,900mm to more 4,000mm per year. Furthermore, Sierre Leone can be divided in twelve water basins. The most important ones are the Kolente, Kaba, Rokel, Pampana, Sewa, Moa and Mano. FAO estimates that the internal renewable water resources are at 160km3 per year and internal groundwater produced is at 50km3 per year. It is evident that there is water available. Yet, these water resources are severely unevenly distributed between place and time, particularly during the dry season. This has created a very pressing issue in water consumption in Sierra Leone. 

In Sierra Leone, a clean and safe drinkable water supply is very limited. Organisation both governmental and non-governmental have increased efforts to improve the water supply condition. However, the civil war has stuttered the development and growth of the water supply in Sierra Leone. Currently, in the capital Freetown, one of the major urban settlement in the country has seen the most reform in the water supply. In Sierra Leone, Freetown’s water source relied heavily on its single source, the Guma Dam, which provided over 90% of the water supply (IMC 2019). In 1961 the Guma Valley Water Act was established the Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC) to supply water to Freetown (AMCOW 2011). Salwaco, a Sierra Leone water company, was established in 2001. This company went from providing 6 provincial towns to servicing water provision and sanitation to four regions of the country – North, North-West, East and South, up to 13 towns. This company provides water to an estimated 5.6m people, which is 80% of the population (Salwaco 2019). Yet there is still the remaining 20% of population without access to this water supply. 

Sanitation Issues in Sierre Leone

Sierra Leone is suffering from a sanitation crisis. Although sanitation coverage has improved from 10% to 15% in 2015, there is still 5.5 million people still living with no access to a decent toilet (WaterAid 2017). This sanitation crisis compounded with the Ebola outbreak, has created a dangerous environment for many new-borns in the country. Here are some of the shocking statistic reported from WaterAid’s annual 2017 report: 

• Over 2000 new-born babies die each year from sepsis and other diseases due to the unhygienic environment, with women having a 1 in 21 chance of losing a baby to sepsis during their lifetime 
• The environment that these babies are born in: 
• 22% of healthcare facilities have no decent toilets 
• 19% of people practice open defecation 
• Furthermore over 1,200 children under the age of 5 die a year from diarrhoea 

Sierra Leone suffers from this sanitation crisis due the consumption of severely contaminated water sources that have been polluted with chemicals and human waste. Despite a water supply from the Salwaco water company, 70% of the population live below the poverty line meaning most of the population cannot afford water. As such most water consumption is from unsafe drinking sources like ponds and unprotected well that are contaminated with waste. This is a breed ground from infections and parasite that are the largest causes of death in the country. Furthermore, living conditions are poor which only exacerbate the problem. Thus, fostering the current sanitation crisis. 

Battle against the water and sanitation crisis in Sierra Leone: 

There are several projects setup in Sierra Leone to provide clean drinking water and sanitation to the all groups of people within the country. The Water Project is an NGO that helps provide reliable clean drinking water to communities in sub-Saharan Africa. This NGO has realised that the water crisis in Africa places limits on the potential of people. They explain how by having a lack of access to safe water and sanitation affects women, children and farmers, thus limiting education and stagnating food production leading to a cycle of poverty. 

One of the projects in Sierra Leone is in Targrin Health Post: 

The Targrin community is home one of the Water Projects water and sanitation projects. The project type is a borehole well and hand pump that helps to solve the issue of girls and women walking long distances to collect water. This borehole well will provide a constant supply of clean water from underground aquifers. This well will be able to provide 5 gallons of water a minute, which will be located near the community providing a secure water supply. On 14th October 2019 the Targrin Health Post project was successfully complete and clean water was restored. The depth of the well reached 20.3 metres with the water at 16.6 metres (Water Projects 2019). However, the Water Project also provided hygiene and sanitation training to clinic workers and community members. Another goal of this project was to improve the health of community, so the training topic included topics such as diseases transmission, personal hygiene and proper disposal and storage of wastewater.  

This is one small community project that has successfully help establish and cultivate a culture of drinking clean water and proper sanitation through education and training of children and adults. There are many small battles like the Targrin community taking place all over Sierra Leone.