Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has warned that Government would soon take strong actions against people who are felling trees and constructing buildings at the catchment area of the Guma Valley Dam at Mile 13 in the Western Area Rural District (WARD).

The Vice President gave the stern warning at the officially launching of the Western Area Peninsula Water Fund on Thursday 25th January, 2024 at the Guma Valley Dam, Mile 13.

According to Vice President Juldeh Jalloh, it was not only the fund that was important but also the numerous challenges facing water distribution in the Western Area, including deforestation around the Guma Valley Dam caused by manmade activities like the felling of trees and construction of buildings that have culminated in the drastic fall in the capacity of water.

The Vice President disclosed that he recently received a report from the World Food Programme (WFP) that in the last couple of years we have lost 27% of the ecosystem around the Guma Valley area, a situation he described as unacceptable.

The Second Gentleman reiterated that the challenges of deforestation, people building around the Guma Valley Dam and the felling of trees have impacted around the catchment area.

VP Juldeh Jalloh, however, explained the importance of the project to the Western Area and what it means to the Government of His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio.He said, amongst other things, that the Water Fund was a mechanism whereby the Government and its Development Partners came together and decided that the former needed financial resources to protect the ecosystem in order to conserve water to supply and to make people gain access to clean drinking water.

Harping on the money involved in the Water Fund, VP Juldeh Jalloh disclosed that according to statistics and previous studies over the years, the Wash Sector Ministers published a report in 2017 that for Sierra Leonne to meet the Sustainable Development Goal by 2030 wherein every Sierra Leonean will gain access to clean drinking water at home, the Government needs to spend about US$1.2B, noting that the government has to pour billions of Leone into the Water Fund..

The Vice President conceded that the money Government had been allocating to the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation over the years was not enough and consequently, the Government decided that it should come up with an idea to create a special fund so that Development Partners would intervene.