MONROVIA, Montserrado – The Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation’s public relations officer has confirmed that the water outages in Monrovia are as a result of the constant breakdown of the public utility’s generators.

Joe Karbar said LWSC currently operates two generators – a 1500 and 1700 kva generator – at its White Plains facility outside Monrovia.

Karbar’s assertion confirms an earlier investigation by The Bush Chicken into the recent outages in greater Monrovia.

He said the LWSC has now brought into the country the two generators to alleviate the problem.

Karbar said the occasional water outages being experienced by residents in Monrovia is also due to the massive damage done to the water treatment facility during the civil crisis.

Prior to the war, LWSC supplied 16 million gallons of water daily to residents of Monrovia. Karbar said in 1997, foreign partners aided the government of Charles G. Taylor and rehabilitated the facility, but he noted that “the entire facility was again damaged due to renew fighting among the various warring factions.”

Joe Karbar, Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation’s public relations officer. Photo: Zeze Ballah

Karbar said that incoming and outgoing management has tried to repair the plant and its generators but the same problems persist. He said it would cost US$300 million to restore the facility to its pre-war status.

“It is very difficult for the government to raise such an amount due to the economic meltdown the world over,” Karbar said.

However, rehabilitation of the facility began in 2015 with funding from the African Development Bank, Karbar said. That work, when completed, should restore the plant’s pre-war supply capacity of 16 million gallons daily.

When the plant was constructed in 1954, it supplied water to no more than 700,000 persons, but today, the population has increased to 1.3 million.

The White Plains Water Treatment Plant. Photo: Zeze Ballah

While the rehabilitation is on-going, LWSC is producing 4 million gallons of water per day but that comes with some problems. For example, many residents experience a low water pressure, which Karbar attributed to mechanical faults.

These issues, coupled with the unfavorable foreign exchange rate, illegal connections, and customer delinquency in paying bills, has created a budget shortfall, Karbar said.

Residents in Rearch of Water during the Early Morning Hour in Monrovia Photo Zeze Ballah

As LWSC continues to weather these issues, the resulting water outages continue to inconvenience Monrovia residents, some of whom will have to wake up as early as 4 a.m. in search of water.

Featured photo by Zeze Ballah