Gassa, Below is something disturbing and agin poor farmers,do you know if efforts are under way to solve this problem too ? For Freedom Saiks Water crisis hit Kwinella Life in Kiang Kwinella village has assumed a difficult turn with water shortage getting more acute as people desperately search for safe drinking water. The water crisis resulted from the total break down of four public hand-pumps out of six being used by the village. The inconvenience began in the Tobaski season when the already densely populated village played host to returning sons and daughters to enjoy the festivities but found out that two hand pumps could not satisfy the demands of the overflowing population. Our reporter who was in he village reported that women in particular bear the burden of searching for water, sometimes drawing from wells on a daily basis. Long queues by them were a daily sight as they search for water for domestic use. Even domestic animals had to wander off to search for water. The problem is so acute that people normally stay at wells till late at night, and wake up early in the morning before the wells run dry. When contacted, the Alkalos described the shortage as a crisis and called on individuals, NGOs and the government to come to their aid. He said his people are contributing towards the maintenance of the damaged pumps. People who spoke to this paper blamed the crisis on the over eight-month old pipe-borne tap water project which remains incomplete as digging work for the installation of water pipes continues. “People’s confidence in the project is waning even before it is completed,” an old villager noted. Others believe that the project was a political ploy to lure votes for the APRC in the last presidential and parliamentary elections. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~