UDP Leader Questions the Competence of Local and Central Gov’t

Says “I cannot get water to rinse my face”

NEWS BANJUL, THE GAMBIA (MB)-The leader of the main opposition party, United Democracy Party (UDP), lawyer Ousainou Darboe has renewed his usual missiles attack on the central government and local government for what he describe as priorities is not set in the development program as Farafenni town and Ndawen village are buying water on daily basic.
Farafenni town is located in North Bank Region while Ndawen village is in Central River Region South and both are buying water on daily basic for home uses like washing cloths, cooking etc.
According to local newspapers publications, with an interview with Mr. Darboe at his office in Banjul,
Darboe stated that “if we have set priorities in our development program on issues and matters that need to be addressed urgently, we will address these matters once and for all”.
According to him, he was in both places and spends the night there adding that, “honestly, in the morning, I could not even have water to wash my face. And Ndawen was the seat of the Chief of Niani at that time.”
In his own thinking, the government should really act together to address issues that are of concern to the people, not only bringing white elephant projects to its citizenry like the rural electrification, when the rural cannot even pay bills for electricity because it is too expensive, said Darboe
He noted that in the rural areas, “No one will pay D6, 000 for a meter, when you cannot provide two bags of rice in your house. So the priority should be water supply. And I hope that both central and local government will address this issue urgently for us to make use of water in our various ways.”
He went on to explain that, water is life.
“We can’t live without water under any circumstances. You can’t even perform your religious rites correctly without water. So water is everything and it is regretting that in the 21st century Gambian people could buy water due to scarcity of water in a large settlement like Farafenni. Rural electrification program should go hand in hand with water supply for the rural areas. In fact, priority should be rural water supply rather than rural electrification.”
UDP leader pointed out that the local government authorities have a responsible to ensure that water is available to residents within their various local governments administrative areas, noting that no Government, whether local or central government, is worth its salt if it cannot provide water for its citizens.