By: Nat Nyuan-Bayjay, interlink2004@yahoo.com, (231-6-402737/231-77-402737)

Liberia is a country known to be blessed with abundance in almost all of God’s resources; yet, among such abundance is rainfall which leads to drought, famine, among other things.

Liberia’s two seasons are shared between what is called the rainy season and the dry season. Currently, the country is in the middle of the rainy season, yet there is a severe shortage of water for the thousands of residents on the massive commercial district of Bushrod Island in Monrovia who have been without safe drinking water for the past four days, thereby leading to hundreds more being forced to drink unsafe drinking water from dug-wells in their swampy communities.

The shortage of water began during the early morning hours of Saturday, August 1, 2009 and continued up to Friday, August 7 as all water pipes and water taps in the communities ranging from Vai Town to the St. Paul Bridge Community stopped receiving water from the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), which supplies Monrovians.

The most dependent on the LWSC water supply are those of Bushrod Island, which contains about half of Monrovia’s 1.3 million inhabitants and is comprised of several communities, a vast majority of which are slums.

Hundreds of residents continue to be seen with empty containers or gallons roaming from one place to another as they searched in vain for water while hundreds more trooped to Central Monrovia and the residential area of Sinkor in an attempt to alleviate themselves of the two-days of ‘desert’ water shortage.

Appalling scenes could be seen at dug-wells as well-water has been substituted for pipe borne water. There were tussles as everyone fights to get at least a gallon of water.

Water from the wells on the island that are somewhat clean are only used for bathing and washing, while others are completely unsafe for any reason.Yet, dozens could be seen fighting to obtain unsafe, semi-muddy water from some of wells, some of which had been abandoned.

While others wandered from one water and sewer pump to another, lots of residents got on commercial motorbikes and in vehicles and headed to other suburbs of Monrovia, including Gardnesville, Caldwell and Sinkor where dug-wells contain water that are relatively clean and safe for drinking as opposed to the ones on the swampy Bushrod Island.

“I don’t have L$50 (almost equivalent to US$1) to pay for one gallon. So, I just have to get some of this water from this well,” said Teta Weah of Clara Town as she referenced the price of a single gallon (five liters) of water by others who succeeded in getting water from hand-pumps in Sinkor and other communities of Gardnesville. Vehicles could be seen being boarded with empty water containers.

The shortage of water led to the rapid sale of locally processed mini-bags of water widely known as ‘mineral’ or ‘pure water,’ packed in long plastics referred to as sacks. Owners of shops selling ‘mineral’ water experienced an increase in sales from Sunday morning up to the late afternoon hours.

According to some residents of Clara Town on Bushrod Island who spoke with FrontPageAfrica, there was no prior notice from the sewer corporation about the shortage of water that would have prepared them to get more water in their various homes.

Andrew Massa, a primary school teacher in Clara Town said, “They (Water and Sewer) should have at least made an announcement on air that there would be a serious water shortage of this kind. Then, we were going to fill our gallons and even up to every cooking utensil in my room”.

A Fula woman only identified as Saluta told FrontPageAfrica that she has not cooked since Saturday due to the water shortage.

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