Water Shortage Adds To Gambia's Energy Crises

Tuesday, 16 October 2012 15:50

(JollofNews) – As if the current acute power outings are not enough stress for the many struggling Gambian families and businesses, a severe water shortage mainly during the day, has added to the misery of urban life.

For several days now, many homes and offices go without running water to run domestic house work or flush toilets at homes and offices.

Again no tangible explanation is given by power and water supplying company NAWEC, leaving the populace to swallow another hardship in the usual silence.

A woman found in Kotu leading a procession of water seeking girls and boys, stopped at a public tap and waved her trooping party behind to turn back as not a drop is running through that tap, one of many which dried up during day light. ‘’One can have water now only late at night. So you either have to spend the whole night fetching water and  forgo sleep to gather enough to last you another twenty four hours,'' she was heard explaining the ordeal of Gambian wives.

While those keeping night vigils at public and private taps could at least have something to use during the day, the same cannot be said of offices which are closed during night and therefore have no one to trap water for use the next day. So workers walked to stay with un-flushed toilets each day. "This is the tragedy of a nation where citizens endure all hardships and cannot even say a word about it,'' a fire officer pulling a carriage loaded with water containers commented.

Meanwhile there is still no remedy to the severe scarcity of electricity in all parts of the Gambia. Generators could be heard humming all day as desperate business men resort to spending more , in fuel this time to attend to urgent transactions.

While NAWEC continues to ask peoples' indulgence blaming one machine to the other, people familiar with the energy sector whispered they believed the problem might just have to do with inadequate cash to ensure regular supply of fuel for the Kotu power Generators.

‘’What do you expect when each time the wind blows, NAWEC's resources would be squeezed to fund one unnecessary event or another. Money badly needed to ensure regular supply of water and power to the Gambian people,'' commented another social critic.
Written by JollofNews