By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
For over 30 years, the villagers of Sare Nyebeh in The Gambia have been without clean drinking water, relying on a single, mostly unclean well and often have to walk over 1.5 kilometres to neighbouring villages to fetch water, mostly done by women.
The village residents, mostly Fulas of different dialects, depend heavily on wells for domestic work and provide drinking water for their cattle herds as they are all herders and farmers.
Speaking to The Fatu Network, Abdoulie Baldeh, a native of the village, said they have been suffering for over three decades with only one well which is mostly unclean and unsafe to drink from.
“We are facing a lot of problems when it comes to water and accessing clean drinking water in our village. The whole issue is that there is only one well in the village, and this well was duck in the 1970s.
“And the well is too deep and most of the time rocks will be stuck in the well. And when such things happen, we will realize there is no other option,” Mr Baldeh told The Fatu Network.
According to him, most of the time, women in the village use horse and donkey carts with gallons to fetch water from the neighbouring village for household use. He lamented the hardships faced by them in the village.
“So, what we do is to go to the neighbouring village that’s Njoben, about two kilometres away from our village. The villagers will use a horse cart to carry gallons to the neighbouring village for water. It is definitely not easy with us here.
“We need help. And in many instances, animals will die in there and when that happens, there will be water odour. The villagers will then abandon the well and start heading to the neighbouring villages for water,” he explained.
The village has nine compounds, however, the population in the village exceeded the number of compounds due to extended families.
According to Mr Baldeh, the village has been seeking help even from their National Assembly Member in the Lower Fulladu West Constituency, but to no avail.
The villagers, without even a single public school, are seeking help from philanthropists to help them with a borehole in the village to help them have access to clean drinkable water.
