-About 100,000 citizens of Montserrado and Margibi Counties to have improved access to safe drinking water
Mr. Goldberg, USAID Director for the Center for Water Security and Hygiene
By: Leila B. Gbati
At least 100,000 residents of Montserrado and Margibi Counties are expected to benefit from improved access to safe drinking water under the USID New Water Activity Project.
The announcement was made by Jeffrey D. Goldberg, USAID Director of the Center for Water Security and Hygiene, and Christian Smith, USAID WASH Specialist, when they appeared as guests on the Super Morning Show on Thursday, May 18, 2023.
The Improved Access to Safe Drinking Water Project was launched on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, in Monrovia and will provide a basic level of water and sanitation services to residents of the two counties for a period of five years.
Mr. Smith said that the Improved Access to Safe Drinking Water in Liberia Activity was awarded on November 1, 2022, to Winrock International, of which Water Aid is a partner.
According to Mr. Smith, the award targets 100,000 Liberians to be upgraded to a level where they have access to improved water supplies in two counties, Rural Montserrado, and Margibi.
He indicated that the whole essence of the project is that Liberia is one of the wettest countries in the world and rated third when it comes to the Sub-Saharan African countries, but with all the abundant water, Liberia still has a scarcity of water supplies.
He highlighted that the project tries to look in the direction of raising about 100,000 Liberians to the level of improving water supply, for which they are engaging all levels of government with a specific focus on local government.
“We are looking at decentralization; most of our activities will include county superintendents, district commissioners, and communities because we try to look at the Local Government Act of 2018 that provides the mandate for local governments to maintain and operate their own water and sanitation facilities, so we are looking in that direction to see how we can explore that angle,” he added.
Additionally, Mr. Smith said that they will also work with and strengthen the private sector and water governance sector because the significance of the project is sustainability, emphasizing that they are actually looking at sustainability.
He continued that “most often business as usual, you come, implement, and leave. A few years later, coming back, you will see that we have gone back to square one, so we are trying to look at this from a different perspective wherein we try to involve all levels of the beneficiary, the private sector, strengthening the governance aspect, and then the people will be able to maintain their own water supply and sanitation facilities, and at the end of the day, we believe it will be successful”.
Mr. Smith noted that Montserrado County was selected because of its huge population, the same as Margibi, and because it was one of the highest counties during the Ebola virus disease. As such, they are looking at water as an important component when it comes to water bond disease, which is one of the reasons they target the two counties.
He asserted that there is a gap in supply in central government to local government adding that “most times you will see service provider coming from central government with delay and sometime they will not show up or people assigned to the counties will normally leave the county for the weekend and having some efficiency so we believe that working with the local government directly will also ensure sustainability and if you compare a public latrine built in the city and maintain by the institution in the city normally fall backward and can’t be sustained but if you give a latrine to a local community even hand pump you will find out that they will maintain and secure it, unlike the urban setting.
“We look at all these aspects and see that the role of sustainability is very key when you are dealing with local government as compared to the national government. We are not leaving the national government; we are going to build that bridge wherein we will strengthen the system that will link the supply to the local government, dealing with them directly. That gap is going to be strengthened, and the local authority will operationalize it and maintain their own water, making it sustainable,” he said.
For his part, Mr. Goldberg said that water sanitation and hygiene are critical priorities for the United States government, and they know that a lack of access to water sanitation increases disease, undermines economic growth, and fosters insecurities.
Mr. Goldberg added that globally, one-third of the population lacks safe access to safe drinking water and over half the population lacks safe sanitation, and by the end of the decade, two-thirds of the global population will face water scarcity. Because of those collective reasons, they have made investments in water and sanitation a cornerstone of assistance.
He stated that Liberia, being part of the 22 countries that are water priorities for the US government, is a very significant destination under their government’s water strategy.
“We are going through a very rigorous assessment process to designate high-priority countries that are intended to be the primary recipients of foreign assistance on water and sanitation, and that destination will not only be based on needs but also on opportunities. We know that water and sanitation needs are great in Liberia, but we also see the opportunity to make a transformational and lasting impact through our investment; this is the destination that we intend to keep for the next five years, and we are really excited to work in partnership with all levels of stakeholders here,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, Mr. Goldberg mentioned that the framework is consistent with their overall global strategy. As such, the first strategic objective of the entire U.S. water strategy is to focus on governance, finance, institutions, and markets. The reason for this is intentional because they know that any construction of a water system or latrine has to be paired with a broader investment in getting the institutional arrangements right to make sure that these systems last for a long time.
“Our intention is to work with all levels of government, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs and county governments, to set up the framework for decentralization of water and sanitation processes. We started with three water treatment plants under the safe water activity, and we have been investing in that over the course of the past 10 years, but our strong interest at this point is to help set up those processes to get the private sector involved in the long-term operation of water service delivery so these investments can last longer. At the highest level in the next 5 years, we are coming up this year with a high-priority country plan that will detail a roadmap for our investment,” he said.
