Safe drinking water necessary for good health

Members of Agua’s team installed a plant based water purification system in Northern Mali, which lead to community wide improvements in public health and economic development (Photo Credit: Agua Inc)

Local councils owing NAWEC over D159 million failed to honor payment plan

On the contrary, the company has not paid corporate taxes of D158 million

The Gambia’s sole producer, transmitter and distributor of electricity, water and sewage, says it has been faced with a legacy of arrears for many years.

Public disapproval of NAWEC’s proposed tariff increase leaves little hope for a refusal

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Is NAWEC’s Financial Status In Jeopardy?

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NAWEC’s Financial Woes Increasing

NAWEC Head Office, Kanifing

The Gambia’s sole producer, transmitter and distributor of electricity, water and sewerage, NAWEC, is feared to “go under” amidst growing financial problems.

The state-owed company, which continues to operate on obsolete machines, is financially in jeopardy as the government continues to take loans and accumulating debts. NAWEC owes more than three billion Dalasi to lenders, financial institutions within and outside the country.   

Huge loans have been accumulated in the wake of new projects like water and electricity expansion; generators and rural electrification; network upgrading; maintenance; establishing stand alone power stations in major provincial towns, including the independent power producer (IPP) at Brikama, the administrative capital of the West Coast Region, among others.

Gambia: $7m to alleviate rura domestic woes

Rehabilitated hand-pump at Sitanunku village,WCR/Pic/MSJoof/NOV2011

The African Development Bank (AfDB) on March 16, 2012 said it has signed two grant agreements with the Gambian government totalling seven million United State Dollars.

The grant is meant to improve access to clean drinking water and better sanitation for an estimated 40,000 people in rural areas of the country and cut hygiene-related deaths in those areas, particularly among children.

The African Development Fund, the AfDB’s concessional or ‘soft loan’ arm, is providing USD 5 million and the remaining USD 2 million dollars will be provided by the AfDB’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative Trust Fund. The funds will be used to build and rehabilitate drinking water supply and sanitation facilities in rural areas of the Gambia.

Is NAWEC’s Financial Status In Jeopardy?

From the Public Accounts and Public Enterprise Committees (PAC/PEC) of the National Assembly to the Public Hearing organised by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), the National Water and Electricity Company, NAWEC have been lamenting the huge sums of money it is owed.

This compelled the Company in what has been seen as a drastic move, to publish in a media dispatch the names of individuals and institutions owing it voluminous sums of monies.

Access to clean water is a respect for human dignity

Pix by P&G Give Health Clean Water Blogivation (Kenya)

The 2011 World Day for Water was marked on March 22 on the theme “Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge” and UNESCO has once again a called for the response to the immense challenges posed by water management to the entire global community.

The Director General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Ms Irina Bokova says the theme serves to remind us all that for the first time in the history of humanity, most of the world’s population is living in cities.

“Urban sprawl continues and slums, which continue to expand, represent 38 percent of this growth. Today, they are home to 1 billion people. The rise in the urban population has outstripped the development of water management, treatment and sanitation infrastructure,” Ms Bokova said.