By Chernor Mohamadu Jalloh
“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” — W. H. Auden
At dawn each day in Kissy Brook, Freetown, Mariatu Kamara, a 35-year-old single mother, begins a silent ritual. She and her daughter Fatmata, just 12, set off with jerrycans in hand, searching for water. Some days, they return with a few litres. Other days, they come back empty.
In a city flanked by waterfalls, rivers, and springs, this is more than ironic—it’s tragic. The Eastern Area of Freetown is facing the worst water crisis in Sierra Leone’s modern history, one rooted not in scarcity, but in state neglect, environmental damage, and systemic inequality.
Once, taps flowed reliably in Mariatu’s neighborhood. Today, they’ve fallen silent. The Guma Valley Water Company—tasked with serving Freetown’s rapidly growing population—still relies on infrastructure built in the 1960s for a city of 300,000. Now, it struggles to meet the needs of over 1.5 million residents. In the absence of consistent state supply, a shadow water economy has taken root: private borehole operators extract groundwater, package it in plastic sachets, and sell it for profit.
To Mariatu, this solution is flawed. The sachets are expensive. The water is often untested. And the waste—the waste is everywhere. “We drink it because we must,” she says. “But the plastics, they’re choking us.” And this unregulated sachet economy brings with it a second crisis: environmental degradation. Plastic waste now floods Freetown’s gutters, clogs drains, and litters riverbanks. These sachets, many of which take over 30 years to decompose, are turning the city into a landfill.
What’s happening in Freetown is not unique. Across Africa, cities from Accra to Lagos have struggled with “hydro-social fragmentation”—a term used by urban theorists to describe the splintering of water access along class lines. The rich drill boreholes; the poor buy water in buckets. But in Sierra Leone, the lack of regulation, planning, and investment has allowed the fragmentation to become a full-scale fracture.
In contrast, neighboring countries offer lessons. Guinea is piloting solar-powered community water systems in Conakry. Ghana’s decentralized water boards regulate boreholes and promote safe distribution. Senegal’s public-private partnerships ensure affordability and access even in peri-urban zones. Sierra Leone can and must learn from these models.
To address the crisis, we propose six urgent actions:
- Declare a National Water Emergency
This will unlock international support and fast-track infrastructure investments where they’re most needed. - Rehabilitate and Expand Guma Valley’s Network
Modern pipelines, reservoirs, and pressure systems must replace the outdated infrastructure. - Regulate Borehole Drilling and Water Sales
All operators should be licensed, water tested regularly, and extraction limited to sustainable levels. - Phase Out Plastic Sachets
Introduce biodegradable packaging and invest in refillable community water dispensers, especially in schools and hospitals. - Empower Local Water Committees
Communities must be trained to manage water resources, report leaks, and ensure equitable distribution. - Restore the Environment
Protect catchment areas, ban destructive sand mining, and promote reforestation in upland zones.
At its core, this is about rights. When Mariatu buys sachet water, she’s not just paying for hydration—she’s paying for the state’s failure to protect a basic human right. Clean water is not a luxury. It’s a constitutional and moral obligation. As Fatmata grows, will she still walk miles for water before school? Or will we act now to ensure that her future is not determined by thirst?
Let us choose legacy over silence. Let the rivers run again—into taps, into homes, into hope.