The public relations officer of Guma Valley Water Company, Joseph Musa, has confirmed to Awoko that 5.8 billion gallons of water are reserved in their reservoir to service Freetown for the next three months.
He said the scarcity took them unawares last year but this time around they had undertaken a lot of studies and had identified a number of factors responsible for such scarcities.
“Human occupations around the Guma dams at Lakka, Mile 13 and global warming are some of the contributing factors,” he maintained.
He explained that Guma now supplied 16 million gallons to residents in Freetown instead of the usual 19 million gallons per day. The reason being that, “there is limited water now as compared to the raining season when the level of water would have risen to capacity”.
He added that one would have expected tentative scarcity as engineers were currently working on the trunk lines to sustain the flow of water in the near future.
With regards to wastages, he said Guma’s staff might not be available at every point to monitor leakage pipes, adding that those leakages were caused by irresponsible people in the various communities.
He said plans were underway to amend the leakages but noted that the watchful eyes of Guma staff would be visible in the four corners of Freetown to expose and prosecute anyone caught polluting and damaging the pipes.
The Guma PRO assured that they had plan to improve on the dams at Hill Station and Allen Town in the eastend part of Freetown to get over the water scarcity.
He concluded that government and donor organizations were recently focused on electricity but after which might turn their attention to water.
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