Alton Bendu provides Safe-Drinking water for Rotifunk and Environs

In a bid to protect children from falling in the hands of rapists and kidnappers in a countryside where hope is drenched in the ditch, Alton Bendu, a Sierra Leonean philanthropist residing in Norway, provided safe-drinking water to Rotifunk Township.

The project to provide safe-drinking water to Rotifunk will see the constructing of three hand-jerk pumps with one already being renovated and put into use.

As the climate changes the glowing sun continues to peek from horizon to horizon drying wet lands and leaving suburbs and inter-lands in a horrible state of despair with the search for safe-drinking water becoming more burdensome for ill-privileged communities.

In Rotifunk, a colonial town located in Moyamba District, poverty perches on the roof of houses and on the outlook of the town itself and its sparsely populated people with demeaning constancy. Life is moving slowly from the cradle to the grave and from hope to hopeless to lay bare the fact about poverty in its harsh state.

Of all worries in this town and villages near, water seems to be the most prevailing concern for residents. Their wells are dry and their quest for water is high, knowing no bounds.

It is in these days of worries, Alton Bendu, a son of the soil currently residing in Norway, has opted to renovate abandoned hand-jerk pumps and dig new ones to provide safe-drinking water for the residents of Rotifunk and its environs.

Pa Lamina Koroma, the Headman of Mankneh Village, a community next to Rotifunk, narrated that they struggling for water. “Since Care built us a tap in 1989 and the war destroying it with more people coming to the village, we have had difficult times getting pure water. The whole village had to resort to the drinking of contaminated water fetched in swamps,” he pointed out.

Pa Lamina welcomed the news about Alton Bendu’s intention of renovating the abandoned hand-jerk pumps and constructing three new ones.

For Councilor Abubakarr Mansaray of Ward 292 Bumpeh Chiefdom Moyamba District, the search for safe-drinking water and renovating abandoned wells are real a crisis for them. He thanked Alton Bendu immensely for being selfless.

In his consideration, Alton Bendu said water is one of the most important elements needed by all humans for which its safety cannot be abandoned. It is against this backdrop he said he has opted to provide safe-drinking water for all in that countryside. “One of the basic things people should direct their focus on is to ensure that our communities have clean pure water,” he said.

In Rotifunk, children had to go two miles away from town to fetch water in swamps with boreholes containing algae. This has led to the poor performance of students in exams since they allocate their study time to the fetching of water.

Reports even say girls are being raped during such moves to fetch water in distant locations while the incident of snakebites and treading on broken bottles and thorny grass remain to be the day-to-day problems encountered by water-fetchers who are mostly children.