Only 25 percent of the population has access to clean water in Liberia, but government officials claim they are working vigorously to address water sanitation issues.
Rhetoric and Reality on Water
Published December 7, 2011
“What brought me to West Point is food. I was so hungry," says Kulah Borbor, recalling why and how she left her hometown in Grand Cape Mount County in western Liberia. Borbor fled heavy fighting in the interior during Liberia’s civil war. With her husband and four young children in tow, she walked for two days before finally settling here in West Point on the edge of the ocean, one of Monrovia’s largest slums.
There were thousands of Liberians like Borbor who squeezed into shantytowns like this. The overcrowding stretched services, turning slums into urban juggles. Clean water and sanitation facilities became all but non-existent. Instead came a toxic combination of dirty water, garbage and sewage. Borbor's husband became sick with cholera and died.
The statistics are shocking. Eighteen percent of all deaths in Liberia are related to illnesses caused by poor water and sanitation – illnesses like diarrhea, malaria and cholera – according to a 2008 World Health Organization report. Only 25 percent of Liberians have access to safe drinking water and less than one in five Liberians has access to improved sanitation facilities.
For Boley's full report on conditions in West Point, please click here.
A collaborative investigation into the water sector in Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Liberia in partnership with local journalists and their outlets.
The Liberian government claims it has provided piped water to Monrovia's worst slum. Yet, the erratic supply leaves residents with little choice but to keep on consuming unclean water.
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Tecee Boley is a Liberian print and radio reporter who has produced work for World Policy Journal, Reuters, World Vision Report, and United Nations Radio. She currently works for...
