The plant superintendent at the Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC) dam and treatment works, Mohamed Koroma, has said the Guma dam at Mile 13 is low but not critical.
Mr Koroma made this pronouncement yesterday when the minister of Energy and Power, his deputy, GVWC’s general manager and his deputy paid a visit to the dam and treatment works.
He added that, “the maximum level of the dam is 862 feet but now the level is 824.78 feet because of the dry season”, adding that the water that Guma produced was pure and safe for drinking.
The plant superintendent noted that Guma reservoir contained 5.2 billions galloons and that it supplied 17 million gallons a day and a total of 1.5 million gallons wastages a week.
Mr Koroma maintained that at present a total of 903 bags of aluminum Sulphate and 2,355 bags of calcium hydro oxide to purify the water for consumption.
Asked if the dam would dry up, he replied that if there was enough rain then the dam would not.
He recommend to the minister and the general manager to buy more pipes so that they could control the water wastages which would be recycled.
Mr Koroma told the visitors of how they were facing problems of communications and good road network.
In response, the minister Haja Afsatu Kabba said by 2015 Sierra Leone would have water to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She added that she would meet with key stakeholders to see how they could upgrade the little Guma dam so that it could supply water to the reservoir. The minister pointed out that President Koroma knew about the problems Guma was facing, and assured the workers that she would discuss with her colleagues ministers to see how they could provide communications and road network for them.
She admonished workers not to allow people to cut down trees and breaking big stones as it would cause erosion and deforestation.
The general manager informed the workers that there were lots of water wastages in the city.
He disclosed that people were ready to pay their bills if they had the water.
The minister and the general manager and entourage were shown how the water was being processed.
By Abibatu Kamara