By P. Stephen Tokpah
(Bong freelancer)
Residents of Kpaai District, Bong County, are now relieved following the construction and dedication of drilled hand pumps to towns and villages in that part of the county.
Africa Heartwood Project is a grassroots non-profit organization run by passionate volunteers who have learned a lot about fighting poverty in rural Liberia.
The hand pump project is being implemented by Africa Heartwood Drilling and Construction Team, with funding from the entity’s donors and other philanthropist organizations in the United States of America.
Presenting the hand pumps to the residents, Africa Heartwood Project Country Director, John Maimafolo Moore, said the hand pump project is intended to enhance citizens’ access to safe drinking water.
Bishop Moore explained that he was sad to see a whole community without any single source of safe drinking water, which sometimes leads them to contracting sicknesses like malaria and diarrhea.
“We act in partnership with the citizens to identify and eliminate specific constraints to their freedoms using sustainable, participatory, results-oriented methods. We are targeting over eight communities in Kpaai District when it comes to hand-pump construction, and out of that number, we have completed five hand pumps,” he added.
He believes the construction and turning over of the hand pumps will greatly help the community in accessing safe drinking water.
The Africa Heartwood Project Country Director revealed that those affected towns and villages in District 1, have had no reliable source of safe drinking water for decades, something that caught the attention of the Africa Heartwood Project to provide safe drinking water for those communities.
He further said since 2021, the Africa Heartwood Project has been involved in the construction of hand-pumps in Bong County.
Bishop Moore further placed the estimated cost of each of the pumps at US$ 3,500.
The Africa Heartwood Project Country Director, at the same time, appealed to the government of President Joseph N. Boakai to see the work they are doing in the rural area in order to rescue them, in terms of buttressing their efforts to construct more hand pumps in Bong and other counties.
In separate remarks, residents of Kpaai District were full of praise for the Africa Heartwood Project for addressing one of the major needs of their communities.
They assured the donor that the gesture would go a very long way in the history and existence of their communities, following several years of safe drinking water challenge.
The Bong County citizens recounted the many challenges they encountered in the past in accessing safe drinking water, particularly during the dry season.
They explained that the pumps dedicated would lessen the burden on them when it comes to getting water.
“Many times, we find it difficult to get safe drinking water due to the limited water facility in this area, but with the intervention of Africa Heartwood Project, I am so, so happy,” one of the citizens stated.
With the construction and dedication of the drilled hand pumps, residents of those communities will no longer go far and near in search of safe drinking water as they did in the past.
They also promised to take good care of the pumps. The turning-over ceremony of the hand pumps was done in the county.
