LIBERIA: Diarrhoea Kills 15 people in Kamara Town ….
Residents Send out SOS for safe Water, Sanitation Facilities – By: Augustine N. Myers – Life is becoming increasingly unbearable for the over five thousand residents of Kamara Town, situated near the Po River between Montserrado and Bomi Counties. Kamara Town is about an hour drive from central Monrovia with a population of approximately 5000 inhabitants to include 250 family heads.
Partial view of Po River Kamara Town in Montserrado County, on Bomi High Way
Kamara Town lacks access to safe drinking water, latrine and health facilities. There are about six hand pumps constructed between 2004-2007, of which two are down and the remaining four are said to be rusty and providing unsafe water due to the reported lack on maintenance since they were constructed.
There is certainly no latrine facility, least to talk about private or public. For medical treatment, the residents usually seek attention from the Redemption Hospital in Monrovia, Montserrado county or the Government Hospital in Tubmanburg in Bomi county between 15 to 20 miles respectively.
Diarrhoea has become a common disease resulting from poor sanitation and the lack of safe drinking water in Kamara Town. A total of 15 persons have died since 2012 reportedly from diarrhoea cases.
According to the Community, the victims include 3 man, 4 women and six children.
The latest victim is an 11th grade student only identified as Boakai who had gone to visit his mother in Kamara Town. Boakai died few days ago from diarrhea, a situation that compelled the residents of Kamara Town to send a team to Monrovia on Tuesday in search of the Offices of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Reporters Network of Liberia.
The Team led by a female youth, Georgina Kamara (Grand Daughter of the Founder of Kamara Town) explained the unfortunate situation and how they have made countless appeals but to no avail.
The following day I visited Kamara Town on behalf of WASH R&E, and upon arrival Georgina along with other community members including the General Town Chief, Momo Ballah led me on a tour starting with the cemetery of diarrhea victims and others.
During the assessment of the town it was noticed that feces had taken over the entire Kamara Town leaving the town with an unpleasant odor which has already created health hazard for the residents. A stranger cannot walk freely from one end of the town to another without holding unto his or her nose.
“We are really suffering and dying slowly here, and if nothing urgently is done to come to our aid we will all die like others” Chief Ballah pitifully asserted. According to him, they always try cleaning the community but continue to find it difficult to curtail open defecation which has become the order of the day.
Residents of the community are usually said to engage in mass open defecation during night hours, a situation the town chief described as uncontrollable in the absence of latrine facilities. “When it rains the water helps to wash away the faces, but again they go into the open wells and old hand pumps we are using for drinking”, Chief Ballah disclosed, stressing they want to build toilets but lack finances. The residents have however mode dirt bricks and awaiting the intervention of government and development partners to assist them construct latrines.
He also disclosed that due to the lack of safe drinking water, latrine and medical facilities, diarrhoea has become a common illness and that they are only surviving by the grace of God.
Residents of Kamara Town have meanwhile sent out an SOS for the construction of safe water, latrine and medical facilities.
Kamara Town once accommodated thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) during the heart days of the Liberian civil crisis. Some of the IDPs have integrated into the community most of whom are said to be orphans and widows.
It is hoped that water, sanitation and hygiene efforts would now focus on targeting the un-served Kamara Town, thereby not undermining the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) principle which calls for access to WASH services to all people without discrimination.
