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MORE news: Refugees Fetch Unsafe Water The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) established the Buduburam Refugee camp in Ghana on 3rd September 1990. Initially the camp had sheltered Liberians fleeing the Liberian bloody civil conflict which had killed over 200,000 people. Prior to the UNHCR’s withdrawal of support to the refugees in 2000, the camp had benefited from the availability of pure drinking water, food supply, clothing and education on a large scale. Today, water is one of nature's most important gifts to mankind - essential to life. A person's survival depends on the quest for water, let alone drinking. Thus, water is one of the most essential elements to good health.
Water is necessary for the digestion and absorption of food. It helps maintain proper muscle tone; supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells; rids the body of wastes; and serves as a natural air conditioning system. Health officials emphasize the importance of drinking at least eight glasses of clean water each and every day to maintain good health - the body does not function properly without enough water. Safe drinking water is absolutely a fundamental human right; hence, respecting the rights and the health of refugees is vital. The provision of pure drinking water to this end is essential. Recognizing the importance of water within the camp’s vicinity, the UNHCR built in the 1990s six reservoirs to satisfy refugees’ overwhelming desire for water. However, when the UNHCR had withdrawn its support from the camp in 2000, the office of the Camp management under John Thompson reportedly took over the reservoirs and rented same to individual refugees, but pocketed the returns to the detriment of vulnerable refugees for whom the reservoirs were built. This deprivation and flagrant disregard for the refugees had aggrieved them so much that they reported the matter to the UNHCR via the Liberian Refugee Welfare Council’s (LRWC) former chairperson Alice G. Abraham. Nonetheless, Alice dragged her feet over the issue; thus, nothing was done to resolve the matter until in mid 2005, when camp Manager Mr. Thompson’s tenure expired, he turned over the six reservoirs to the LRWC for exploitation. Unfortunately, the LRWC did not do any thing better than their predecessor; in fact, worse, in that they rented the reservoirs out to individual refugees generating income for themselves tantamount to the refugees’ right for water. In the bid to obtain affordable water, refugee women have dug boreholes around the camp perimeter. Thus, over 35,000 camp inmates have resorted to skirmishing for water, and the LRWC is giving deaf-ear to their plight. The cost for renting the reservoir monthly ranges from 3 to 10 Ghana cedis, respectively, according to renters. The Equality Trumpet tried before going to press to get the LRWC’s chairman, Varney B Sambola, 111 to comment on the allegation, but to no avail as he had always reported to be into some “serious” meeting.
Nevertheless, the Chairman for Grievances and Disciplinary Committee of the sports department of LRWC, Johnny Z. Duaryenneh had confirmed the allegation that the council is renting the six reservoirs, but reported that the proceeds generated have been pocketed by one man, whose name, he did not mention. Mr. Duaryenneh, who was the head of Arbitration and the Disciplinary Committee of the LRWC, revealed that he and some other senior staff members over the years had campaigned for accountability and transparency in connection with the proceeds obtained from both the water sales and the charges for the 12 public toilets built by the UNHCR. He also informed the Equality Trumpet that the UNHCR allegedly provides annually sixty to seventy thousand Ghana cedis to so-called development partners for the removal of toilet wastes adding: “refugees are paying fees not only to use the toilets but to help remove the wastes at intervals.” “On the daily basis each of the 12 toilets generated the sum of 2.5 Ghana cedis amounting to nine hundred Ghana cedis monthly which can not be accounted for,” he lamented. He stressed the need for Liberian refugees to become united in a common voice to have the effrontery to ask the LRWC to provide accurate account of all the proceeds received from the water and the toilet business.
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