Kono District, historically known for its diamond mines and fertile lands, now grapples with an existential threat: the rapid depletion of its water sources.
Amara Fatorma lives in Levuma Tankoroh, a village of over 900 inhabitants, which once relied on three functional wells. Today, all three wells have dried up, forcing residents to trek half a mile to a sluggish trickling stream. This scene repeats across the district, where seasonal droughts, deforestation, and inadequate infrastructure have turned reliable water sources into distant memories.
Amara story is tragically common. “We’ve been drinking stream water for years,” he explains, gesturing to the murky stream. “We don’t know if it’s safe, but it’s all we have.” The absence of water testing facilities means communities gamble with their health daily. Contaminated water breeds waterborne diseases like cholera and dysentery, yet even falling ill offers little reprieve. The nearest clinic is in Bayama, a 50-minute walk through a lonely bush road—a journey that could become perilous for the frail, especially pregnant women, or children.
The water crisis is testing socioeconomic pulse of many communities within Kono District. Women and children, traditionally tasked with water collection, spend hours each day navigating rocky paths to distant streams. Even agriculture, the next major economic activity after mining, is withering. Crops fail as erratic rainfall and dried-up wells make irrigation impossible. Climate change leading to erratic weather patterns have not helped the situation either. “The rains came too early this year. It took us by surprise, even before we could even get the land ready” Amara said.
Despite the despair, glimmers of resilience emerge. When a groundwater assessment team arrived in Levuma Tankoroh, Amara became their guide, eager to show them the well locations, and feeding his curiosity intermittently with questions. “Water is life,” he insists. “If we find it here, our children might stay in school, and our farms could thrive again.”
The Kono Groundwater Assessment Mission is spearheaded by the National Water Resources Management Agency (NWRMA) in collaboration with a host of government MDAs, local councils, and civil society organisations, with funds from UNICEF Sierra Leone. Community participation like Amara’s are quite essential to the success of development projects
The crisis in Kono District is a microcosm of a global challenge: water scarcity as a multiplier of poverty and inequality. For Amara and millions like him, water is not merely a resource—it is the fountain of dignity, health, and hope. Solving Kono’s water crisis demands more than temporary fixes; it requires the contribution of the socioeconomic, health, agricultural, and other sectors. Together, we can all build a water secured country.