Reconciliation in Rofutha

Our partners in Sierra Leone, Iron Man Drilling Enterprise, recently started working in the Rofutha community in the western Portloko District of Sierra Leone, a community of about 700 people. The following story from Water4 Quality Control Champion, Solomon Sesay shows just how transformative of a role our partners have in seeking the justices of safe water with communities.

“The community elders explained to me that they used to have a hand dug well with a pump on it. Back in the 1990s, during the civil war in our country, the rebels destroyed this well. They were throwing in dirt and furniture, and after throwing all these items in the well they tied the hands of a young boy and threw him in the well. Fortunately for the boy, he was not drowned in the water, but he found himself on a chair that was thrown in the well. He was in the well for more than a week, then it happened that a rebel was passing that village but he wanted to drink. When the rebel went to the well to fetch water, he saw the boy in the well and he asked who threw the boy in the well. The boy replied that it was the rebels who threw him in the well. The rebel guy who wanted to drink, recused the boy. To the glory of God, this boy survived that hard time and he is still alive today.

After the war, community people were suffering for water to drink, and they didn’t have the resources to rehab the well the rebels destroyed. For a long time they were fetching water from streams. A former community member started to rehab the well but was not able to complete it. Since then, this community has never had the chance to have an improved source for them to fetch safe water to drink.