By Foday Moriba Conteh
On the 4th June, 2021, Philip K. Lansana, Minister of Water Resources, his Deputy, Nimatulai Bah-Chang and a cross section of Senior Management of Guma Valley Water Company paid visits to project sites at the Guma Babadorie facility at Regent and Mambo Village.
The rationale behind the visits was to assess progress on the Freetown Emergency Recovery Project (FERP) and the Mambo/Hamilton Water Supply Project funded by the World Bank and the Government of Sierra Leone respectively.
It must be noted that the development objective of Freetown Emergency Recovery Project (FERP) for Sierra Leone is to rehabilitate selected critical infrastructure affected during the 2017 Mudslide at Regent and to strengthen Government capacity for managing disaster risk; whereas the objective of the Mambo/Hamilton Water Supply project is to improve public service delivery and increase sustainable access to safe water supply to the two communities.
Under the Freetown Emergency Recovery Project, the Water Supply component is being handled by PAVI FORT and HDF; PAVI FORT is working on the rehabilitation of the Treatment Plant whilst HDF is working on laying of the transmission pipe lines.
Construction works on the FERP commenced in September 2020 and is now 80% completed; so far, the installation of a new Transformer and two (2) new Pumps, Flow Meters, installation of 4.5km of pipe line from Regent to Malama Lumley, rehabilitation of the Sand Washing Bay, Filters and Lighting system have been completed.
The visit ended at the site of the Mambo/ Hamilton Water Supply Project deep inside the Western Area Forest Reserve Park, where the Contractor, Brunnenbau Conrad, assured the Minister that 70% of the work would have been completed by the end of June 2021.
The Minister, Philip K. Lansana expressed satisfaction over the progress made so far on both projects and promised his cooperation as and when needed.
The Managing Director of Guma Valley Water Company, Maada Kpenge expressed similar sentiments to the Minister and to World Bank and the Government of Sierra Leone for their interventions.
The visiting delegation was taken on a conducted tour of the various project sites by the Chief Engineer ,Prince Moore-Sourie and the Planning Manager, Ibrahim C. Bah, who updated them on progress of the works.
