Jonathan Hindolo Kurabu: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 12 May 2019:
Bo City, the country’s second city situated in the Southern Province has been fraught with an avalanche of odd developments; whether they constitute an insignia of bad omen or natural occurrences is left in the hands of God.
Yet we cannot continue paying lip service to these ailing concerns which are affecting thousands of residents daily.
Over the past months, we’ve had series of bad experiences, ranging from fire accidents, road accidents, increased in crime, sexual abuse/rape, worsening energy situation and now, the City has again been plunged into water shortage.
Thousands of hand dug water wells have dried up causing unbearable inconveniences for residents.
Most homes now ration the use of water just like food nowadays. The affluent ones who can afford the growing cost of water supply from SALWACO are at ease, whilst some of us – the middle income earners, go in search of water for drinking and household purposes.
For some, especially those who survive by His daily grace go to nearby swamps to fetch water. Can you imagine the possible health challenge this would resort to, if not nipped now?
What could possibly be the cause of the water crisis in Bo City?
I have spent endless hours pondering over this conundrum only to be told by a friend of mine though jokingly: “the well den dry because de gron sef dry”.
His response though an allusion, yet resonates with the cries of the average hustler – “D gron dry”.
The water crisis in Bo is being further worsened by the untold hardship in which we have found ourselves as a nation, yet some are still very comfortable despite the grumblings.
In all of these, what is the Water Ministry doing? Where is SALWACO? Do they actually exist? Why should a whole city become plunged in water crisis and no action is taken to remedy this malaise?
Sadly though, our country is badly polarised, regardless the velocity of your shouting, cries or woes, once you are not in Freetown, no one will solve your problems. When Freetown sneezes, the Country shakes, on the reverse, it’s doom.
We are in dire need of basic amenities in Bo City – our bonafide entitlements, but we are bereft of these rights with impunity. Don’t we deserve better under the New Direction? Are we being side-lined so soon?
Needless to mention the strategic roles played by the South and Bo City in particular to ensure a landslide victory For President Bio.
Former President Ernest Bai Koroma wasted no time in transforming Makeni, his hometown, the breadbasket of the North when he became President. He is viewed by many as a personification of development in the North, although he himself did it at the expense of other districts. Whilst we suffer in agony, they are enjoying in luxury.
What a farce
Do you know that successive SLPP governments and their leaders who controlled State resources could hardly point at feasible legacies in the south during their heyday in governance?
Name me one major development made by them. (This is possibly why I personally admire VP Victor Bockarie Foh. His legacies will forever remain to be an indelible print in the annals of history). They were so overwhelmed with the frenzy of politics.
Can anything good come out of Bo ‘cox’ even Bo Rangers seems to be out of the range. Maybe it’s time to draw nearer to God and surrender our woes and ways to Him.
His intervention will make a turnaround tornado miracle for residents of Bo City; and will make the powers that be to prioritize Bo City in terms of water, energy, Jobs, etc. Remember, with God, all things are possible.
As a Bo resident and in sympathy with neighbors flooding our place every morning to get water, I am saddened by the daily experience of many who sometimes return home without water; the hand pump gets dry sooner than before. Unprecedented! This is unquestionably the effect of global warming. May the Almighty God make it softer for us.