By Tabora Bojang & Fatou Saho
Frequent complaints about insufficient or total lack of water at the main referral Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul have now grown to be a national alarm.
In the latest incident Wednesday, escorts and relatives of patients reached out to The Standard, bitterly complaining about an acute shortage of water in the facility forcing them to buy water from the shops.
Ousman Touray, an escort, said: “Sometimes it takes a whole day without water. As you can see right now, there is no water available. This is terrible and it means poor sanitation at a place where people come to get treated”.
Another escort, Ebrima Jabbie, said the situation of water is too bad, ‘difficult and painful to take’.
Muhammed Sillah, whose uncle is admitted at the EFSTH, said: “I came here to see my uncle on Sunday and I found that there was no water. I came back again on Tuesday and it was the same problem. We had to roam with our kettles all the time to get water from anywhere we can find it”.
Confronted with these complaints, the Chief Medical Director, Dr Mustapha Bittaye, said the most recent problem had to do with Nawec and has affected not just the hospital but most parts in Banjul.
“There is a problem at the Denton Bridge area. I think Nawec had a pipe burst and the water coming to Banjul is very low. We are trying to get the fire service to help us with water. But the persistent water problem that used to happen has now been sorted out”, Dr Bittaye added.
He explained that the hospital has now been connected to the water tank in Banjul, meaning that even when the hospital’s tanks are down, there will be supplies from the main Banjul tank.
