Liberians protest for lack of Water

A civic group under the banner, "Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Network on Friday staged a sit in action at the offices of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) in Monrovia.

The citizens, mostly young people with placards said are demanding concrete action to improve service, governance and financing for water, sanitation and hygiene.

They told reporters that their decision to gather at the LWSC was to express their opposition to the hash water, sanitation and hygiene condition being experienced every day by the population due to the corporation and other line ministries and agencies inability to live up to their statutory responsibilities.

In a petition, the group's spokesperson Kebbeh Johnson said the Sit-In Action was in support to their recently announced and extended 90 days ultimatum to the government of Liberia, demanding concrete action to improve WASH governance, public financing, service quality as well as water and sanitation sector regulation.

Madam Johnson said the Sit-In action is to discourage the fact that the supply of water by the LWSC is dehumanizing, irregular, and disproportional to require supply needs of the population to the extent that necessitates urgent action from top management to improve the situation for the better.

We are worried by the government of president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announcement in her State of the Nation Address in January 2015 that 33% of the population lacks access to clean drinking water, 83% lacks improve sanitation and 95% do not practice safe hygiene, we believe these are amongst factors that increase disease burden, reduces life expectancy and to a greater extent alarm the just ended Ebola crisis," the group's statement said.

The group quoted the World Bank water and sanitation program assessment report reported in 2012 that 3,000 people died every year in Liberia from sanitation causes; Madam Johnson said 1800 of the 3000 people who died from lack of access to sanitation are children less than 5 years.

The WASH CSOs Network further called on government to urge the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation to activate its nonfunctional water lines in Paynesville, Bushrod Island and Somalia Drive communities.