By Abdulai Fofanah
Bombali District, 10th November, 2026 – The Rotary Club of Freetown Sunset has handed over two newly constructed boreholes to two health posts in Bombali District – Kayasie Community Health Post and Fullah Town Two Community Health Post – to help the facilities access clean and safe water, improve maternal health, and support disease prevention and control.
The two boreholes are part of a water project supported by the Naperville Sunrise Rotary Club in the United States and the Rotary Club of Freetown Sunset. The Project was implemented by World Hope International, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the District Health Management Team in Bombali and the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, the President of Rotary Club of Freetown Sunset, Abdul Manaff Kemokai, urged community members to take good care of the facilities. He called on World Hope International to work with the communities to ensure the boreholes remain clean and functional. He also urged the community members to enforce bylaws and raise funds for maintenance when the machines develop faults.
“For a project like this, we are more interested in sustainability,” he said. He also thanked the immediate past president for bringing the project to the communities.
The Immediate Past President of the Rotary Club of Freetown Sunset, Musa Bernard Komeh, said that the boreholes were constructed after they discovered that some health facilities in Bombali had no water.
“We know that when we have water, we provide access to quality water, not just for the hospital but for the community as well. For the health facility, when women come to give birth, they need water to stay clean,” he said. He thanked the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise in the US for providing the funds to construct the boreholes.
WASH Programme Manager at World Hope International, Ing. Nwokelo Ibrahim, explained that Kayasie and Fullah Town were selected after an assessment conducted with the Ministry of Health, which identified PHUs most in need of water. He urged the communities to maintain the facility, noting that seven community members in each town had been trained on basic maintenance, with pump technicians available in every chiefdom for major repairs.
“The only thing we want to emphasise now is maintenance. This is a machine, and no matter what, it will develop a fault one day,” he said, stating that they had trained seven people on basic knowledge of how to maintain it if it has a fault.
“For small repairs, you will need to make small contributions to manage it, and to provide transport [fare for pump technicians] for maintenance,” he said. “The only gift you can give us is that when we pass here in two or three years, we will still see this facility working exactly as it is now. There is no need to give us a goat. If this water continues to flow, we will be very happy.”
The Midwife at Kayasie Community Health Post, Adama Posseh Kanu, said the community had suffered greatly for water, with health workers forced to buy water and patients suffering from diarrhoea due to dirty stream water. She said the old water source was rusty, had a smell and a bad taste, and could not be used. She thanked the donors for the clean water, saying the community now no longer buys sachet water.
“We also want to thank the community people, because when the water first came, they were happy. They came, they saw the water flowing, they danced and jubilated, because of the kind of suffering we had for water here,” she said.
Kanu promised the community would maintain the boreholes with care. She also appealed for a secondary school in the community to stop children from dropping out after primary school.
The Midwife at Fullah Town Two Community Health Post, Ramatu Tholley, said the health centre had suffered greatly for water since she arrived as a nurse.
“We went through a lot for this water crisis. We used to go right down to the stream to fetch water. I myself cannot carry water. If I carry a bucket, I feel like I will drop it, because it shakes on my head,” she said, saying that they had struggled to care for women in labour without water to wash hands or clean their delivery “things.” She said the community, with a catchment population of 18,125 people, are surviving from the newly constructed boreholes. She thanked the donors for the borehole, saying it has brought great joy to them.
The Former Councillor of Makeni City Council, Alusine Alfred Kargbo, said the community, down to the least person, appreciates the water project and thanked the donors. He said maintenance must be owned by the community, and that the facility would greatly help the nurses who previously delivered pregnant women without water.
He thanked the old man, who provided the land for the well, saying the facility would not have been there without him. He assured the donors that the community would take care of the facility and would call a meeting to agree on how residents would contribute small amounts for its maintenance.
The Headman at Kayasie Community, Sara Kamara, thanked the donors and prayed for God’s blessing upon them. He said the community had suffered greatly for water, but thanked God they now have water.
The Assistant Governor of all Rotary Clubs in Sierra Leone, Rotarian Milicent Cole, urged the Kayasie Community to handle the borehole with care. She told them to advise their children to take their time when using it. “It is not a toy to play with,” she warned them. She assured them that the water is clean and safe and would not give them typhoid or cholera.
