The celebration was held at the Russell Technical Secondary School within the Bayoh Community in Waterloo, and brought together representatives from government, nongovernmental organizations, religious leaders and tribal heads.
Living Water Country Director, Hastings Bandia noted that the main aim of the organization geared towards improving water and sanitation in schools and hygiene among communities, as water was very essential and indispensable to human existence, stating that the organization also partner with UNICEF in commemorating this all important day.
He pointed out that only few people had the opportunity to access safe water in the western urban area and rural districts, and reaffirmed that only twenty two schools had access to clean water in the country.
He noted that water was very essential in human life especially clean water and pupils required access to clean water in schools, while assuring that Living Water would emulate the good examples of the presidential recovery priorities project.
The chairperson of the occasion, Doris Bah commented on the importance of water to human existence and the issue of providing safe drinking water to Sierra Leoneans must be treated with all the seriousness it deserved.
she furthered stated that any country that lacks the required water facility for it people will be prone to serious health challenges, economic and education sectors deficit, considering the high rate of school dropouts, happened as a result of the lack of accessible water and sanitation facilities in their immediate communities, she claimed.
Madam Doris Bah further disclosed that pupils abandoned their studies in search of water and that this awful trend had resulted to serious problems for most deprived parents and guardians, as she assured the audience they were working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
On his part, Alhaji Sesay who represented the Ministry of water Resources mentioned that his ministry believed in collaborating with organizations to educate and caution various communities on how to manage water, stressing that if the necessary policies and programmes initiated to ensure adequate and safe drinking water, were not implemented, there would be serious problems in the future, he ascertained.
Yirah Mansaray, a representative of the presidential recovery team extended his appreciation to Living Water for commemorating the world water day, adding that since the establishment of the presidential recovery programme they had been supportive to promoting the less privilege communities.
