Highest Cholera Report Is From West Point!

TownshipCommissionerAsserts,butMedicalOfficeClarifies
By Priscilla J. Quiah, jhr TTT
 Although the Commissioner of the Township of West Point has alarmed the poor water and
sanitation situation of the area, stating that the highest report of cholera emanates from West Point,
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Saye Dahn Baawo corrects the information by saying that the alarming
rate of cholera mentioned by the West Point Commissioner was actually high rate of diarrhea cases.
The township of West Point, situated at the suburb of the City of Monrovia, has a density of
population to which over an estimated 62-75,000 of Monrovias population of 1.4 million people is
credited.
Notwithstanding, West point Commissioner, Sylvester Lama, confirms findings of an investigation by a
team of Journalists for Human Rights (Jhr) that West Point indeed suffers sanitation and water problem.
He confirmed that the people of West Point were buying safe drinking water for L$60.00 per container,
but indicated that water sellers were exploiting the situation of lack of pipe-borne water in the
community.
Mr. Lama said most times, his office liaises with NGOs to chlorinate the wells, which he says helps
sometimes, but according to him, the community is built with dirt used to fill in wetlands that
residents purchased for their dwelling. So using water from the ground is really still risky, Mr. Lama
said, disclosing that West Point had the highest incident rate of cholera apparently because of the
regular use of unsafe water by residents.
The township commissioner then calls on the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation to come in and
provide drinking water to the people of West Point.
However, the Ministry of Healths Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Saye Dahn Baawo, who was contacted
by this reporter, clarified that the alarming rate of cholera mentioned by the West Point Commissioner
was actually high rate of diarrhea cases. He said there was a need for awareness for the people to
exercise healthy sanitary practices.
It was discovered during the jhr investigation that there arent adequate toilet facilities in the
Community in addition to the lack of safe-drinking water. Mr. Thomas Tweh, Chief Executive Officer of
the West Health and Sanitation Organization described the communitys sanitary situation as horrible.
During the rainy season, he said, the wells are usually over-flooded with filthy water thereby making
the situation of skin diseases prevalent and heighten the cases of other water-borne diseases in the
township.
Speaking to the specific challenges of waste management, which he considers one of the several
reasons of the prevalence of sanitary related diseases, Mr. Tweh asserts, ... this is because the
management system is very poor; the control measures are not available, and there is no state policy to
back people.
He further indicated, ...there are no options as to how we should manage our waste. We dont even
have a dump site. People use the beaches as dump sites because it takes almost 30 minutes walk from
here to the Water Side where garbage is. So people use the river banks and the sea shores as well as the
beaches.

He continued, Adequate toilet facilities are not available. The four toilets available were built by
USAID, two are now not working. ...so people use the beach for defecating.
 He appealed for the intervention of government and non-government organizations. I am appealing
to the national government and non-government organization dealing in construction of public toilets to
intervene in this situation and find an easy way of waste disposal in the absences of road network.
If you go in and build toilets, how do you dislodge the waste? So we need to build toilet facilities
along the roads so that they can be accessible for dislodging, he said.
On the issue of the lack of safe drinking water in West Point, Mr. Tweh further asserted, Water has
also been a problem for the past six years. Since the first term of the president, we have not had drinking
water in West Point. I have engaged international organizations such as Water Aid, PSI, related groups. I
have sent proposals to work on emergency water trucking into West Point, to build a reservoir, to create
access to water. And it is not working.Where is the money to pay?
Mr. Tweh pointed out that with the rainy season, nearly all of the community wells become
contaminated by running flood, noting, They are all makeshift and very low wells. They are low to the
surface to the extent that rain floods flow into the wells with feces of the kids.
The residents are constrained to use the contaminated water from the wells for cooking and washing
to the detriment of residents, since West Point dwellers are not solvent enough to buy water for cooking
and washing. They therefore develop some skin diseases, diarrhea and runny stomachs and other
diseases - People die. Yes. People die, Twe lamented.
The CEO of the local NGO maintained, I sent a proposal to PSI; they got it. I sent it to Water Aid; they
got it. Were looking for at least US$72,000 for 100 wells and four water tanks. So we could decentralize
it and go into areas.
However, he said Water Aid responded, We not working in Montserrado County.
Similarly, the government pays lip service when they declare that people deserve water but fails to make
water available to its people. He furthered, I dont think the government should say that they dont
have money, Just US$72,000 considering the allowance of just one minister of government.
Some residents of West Point who spoke to the Jhr reporter disclosed that a 5-gallon container is sold
at L$50 to L$60 by guys who bring water in to the township from Central Monrovia. According to Madam
Rebecca Ponnie, a mother of five, she has to purchase 10 of the 5-gallon container weekly for the use of
her household of 16 family members.
Another resident who claimed that her family members are 35 in total lamented that getting safe
drinking water was a huge financial burden for her family because the high cost for a 5-gallon container.
Another family head, who claimed to also have 31 family members appealed to the government to
come to their rescued as the struggle of obtaining safe drinking water was a financial nightmare for
she and her family.
Reacting to the West Point Situation on the first visit of a team of jhr reporters, the Managing Director
of the Liberia Water & Sewer Corporation Managing Director Nortu Jappah said West Point is supplied by
pipe. We have a tanker, a reservoir, just underneath the Johnson Street Bridge, that sends water from
our line into that reservoir. And its pumped by pressure, a pressure pump, into the line into West
Point., he said contrary to claims by West Pointers that they are not supplied safe-drinking water,
adding, Thats how we get water into West Point.
He admitted that West point is very important to LWSC because of the issue of lack of sanitary
facilities, noting that the corporation needs to make sure that we have piped water.
 And the plans are there, they are on the way, for the middle of this month, we ordered three new
pumps. Those pumps will be ready for shipment by the middle of this month, by the 13 of April,
tomorrow.
And then it will take another week at least to be shipped to Liberia, and then technicians need to
install it. When that is installed, it will help tremendously in getting water on a constant basis and a less-
frequent break-down basis to getting water to those areas I talked about.
Director Jappah furthered, West Point people say theyre not getting water, yes. So by the end of this
month [April 2012], most of those problems will be solved. But like I said, it is because of our limited
capacity, because if you have three pumps working they are old.
But after exactly two (2) months and two (2) weeks of Mr. Jappah promise to fix the technical problem
that he associated with supplying the township with safe drinking water, a team of jhr trainers again
visited the LWSC following a recent tour of West Point which was a response to report of a cholera
outbreak. The managing director was said to have been unavailable. Several other attempts made by
this reporter to contact Mr. Jappah based could not materialize as he was always said to have been too
busy. The Corporation's Public Relations Officer, Wilmot Deweh promised to arrange a meeting between
the Corporations Deputy Managing Director for Technical Services, Elmos Glay failed to materialized as
Mr. Glay was also always said to have been too busy.
Still yet another attempt by this reporter prove futile yesterday, as the managing director was said to
have traveled and the deputy for technical was said to have been very busy.
Meanwhile the government of Liberia Policy commitment on water, sanitation and hygiene in Liberia
2011/2012 with support from national and international partners developed policies including the
integrated Water Resource Management policies, Water supply and sanitation policy and sector strategy
plan, Investment plan and capacity building plan which were fashioned after and to enhance the Country
drive to accelerate the achievement of international and national policies, protocols, treaties,
conventions and laws such as Millennium Development Goals, Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
eThekwini Declaration, UN Least Develop Countries program of Action, UN General Assembly 2010
Resolution, Liberias poverty Reduction Strategy WASH among others. According to Liberias water policy
document, this policy with respect to water supply and sanitation is to enable the government to meet
the target set in the Liberian Poverty Reduction Strategy (2008 2010) and the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) for 2015:To halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford safe
drinking water by 2015 and increase the access significantly.
The Republic of Liberia has ratified and adopted all conventions on the provision of safe water supply
and adequate sanitation for the people.
Human Rights Workers have said that there is little or no awareness among the population about these
existing national and international policies.
While water has not been explicitly recognized as a self/standing human right in international treaties,
international human rights law entails specific obligation related to access to safe drinking water. These
obligations require States to ensure everyone s access to a sufficient amount of safe drinking water for
personal use and domestic uses, defined as water for drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes,
food preparation, and personal and household hygiene. These obligations also require States to
progressively ensure access to adequate sanitation, as a fundamental element for human dignity and
privacy, but also to protect the quality of drinking / water supplies and resources. 2
The legal bases of the Right to water 3

The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and
affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to
prevent death from dehydration, to reduce the risk of water-related disease and to provide for
consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements.

Article 11, paragraph 1, of the covenant specifies a number of right emanating from, and indispensable
for, the realization of the right to an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and
housing. The use of the word including, indicates that this catalogue of rights was not intended to be
exhaustive. The right to water clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an
adequate standard of living, particularly since it is one of the most fundamental conditions for survival.

1
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESRC), General Comment 15 the Right to
Water (2002). General comments provide an authoritative interpretation by an expert body on
provisions under various international covenants, including the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights.
2
OHCHR Fact Sheet No. 35 The Right to Water.
3
CESCR, General Comment 15.
Specific obligations in relation to access to safe drinking water and sanitation have increasingly been
recognize in core human rights treaties, mainly as part of the right to adequate standard of living and the
right to health.
The Committee notes the importance of ensuring sustainable access to water resources for agriculture to
realize the right to adequate food (see general comment No. 12 (1999)). Attention should be given to
ensuring that disadvantaged and marginalized farmers, including women farmers, have equitable access
to water and water management systems, including sustainable rain harvesting and irrigation
technology. Taking note of the duty in article 1, paragraph 2, of the Covenant, which provides that a
people may not be deprived of its means of subsistence , States parties should ensure that there is
adequate access to water for subsistence farming and for securing the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.
Environmental hygiene, as an aspect of the right to health under article 12, paragraph 2(b), of the
Covenant, encompasses taking steps on a non-discriminatory basis to prevent threats to health from
unsafe and toxic water conditions.