A society in tatters after years of instability

Residents of Guinea Bissau’s capital often joke they have the only fire-fighters in the world forced to race to the scene of a blaze without water. But Fire Chief Malam Djaura says it’s not just water they lack, it’s also protective clothing, rescue equipment, an outgoing phone line and two months of still unpaid wages.

For lack of funds or facilities, Djaura and his team of 74 firemen have been unable to do their job of extinguishing a blaze for months. But that is the same problem faced by most government workers in this tiny former Portuguese colony in West Africa.

Below the largely empty shell of a building that is the country’s only fire-fighting facility, a dozen battered vehicles and fire engines are lined up but only one is ready for action - a battered land-cruiser that starts up on the third try, usually.

“Imagine! Guinea Bissau is a country of 36,000 sq km of territory and about one and a half million people with only one fire brigade that has only one vehicle with the capacity to carry just 300 litres of water!” Djaura, who has the rank of colonel, said.

Photo: Sarah Simpson/IRIN

The former presidential palace, now derelict after the roof was blown off in the civil war seven years ago

“A few days ago in Belem Street, just five minutes away, a house burned down and three families lost everything they owned because we were unable to help them,” he added. “It was terrible.”

A few months ago, Bissau’s main market went up in smoke, then the main hospital’s emergency generator burned down. Each time, the firemen had to stand by and watch.

In the old days, the fire chief said, Bissau residents used to look to the fire service with their smart uniforms and gleaming red trucks for help. During the country’s 1998-99 civil war, frightened families sheltered from rebel shells in the fire station, where the bullet holes and destruction wrought in the crossfire have still to be repaired.

According to Djaura, who has been a fireman for 26 years, the state of the nation’s fire fighting services, like most things in Guinea Bissau, has deteriorated steadily ever since independence from Portugal in 1974.

Prime Minister Aristides Gomes, who was appointed last November, told IRIN in an interview that the new government’s priority is to work to improve the lives of all of the people of Guinea Bissau by hauling the country into the 21st century.

“We must modernise the country,” said Gomes. “We must improve the infrastructure to enable business to invest. We must improve the roads. We must resolve our electricity and water problems and general communications problems. That is our strategy.”

Guinea Bissau is a tiny West African country nestled south of Senegal but the pot-holed dirt road and rivers that have to be crossed on semi-dilapidated ferries mean that distances of little over 100km can take a full day to cover by car.

Photo: Sarah Simpson/IRIN

The aging and crowded ferry that crossed the Casheu River linking the main route north

Lack of investment in national infrastructure and state services is endemic across much of West Africa, home to half of the world’s 26 least developed countries.

But after decades of conflict and political instability, the task in Guinea Bissau is immense. A short drive down the hill from Gomes’ office, the national port is a silted quagmire, a rusty graveyard for wrecked abandoned boats. The nearby commercial zone was mostly destroyed in the civil war seven years ago and the businesses that left have never been compensated so have never returned.

As the sun sets, the tiny capital’s low colonial-era buildings stand plunged in darkness, either due to power cuts or unpaid bills. And even the country’s main hospital, Simao Mendes Hospital, is affected by power problems. Nurses frequently are forced to deal with night-time emergencies using lamp and candle light since the loss of the emergency generator in a fire in March. There is one portable generator, but that is not enough.

“This is the only emergency ward in Guinea Bissau,” said head nurse Nene Catrona Sanca as she strode through the chaos and stench of injured, seriously ill and semi-conscious patients in her crisp white uniform. “We have 11 beds in the ward and seven makeshift beds here in the corridor.”

The 416-bed hospital is stretched beyond its meagre resources. In the maternity unit, expectant and new mothers are sleeping two to a bed. Hospital director Agostiho Ca says operations are often undertaken without all the necessary equipment and his budget often leaves him unable to buy basic cleaning products.

“There are parts of the hospital where the roof leaks and the electric system has been ruined so there aren’t even lights when we do have power,” said Ca. “And we can only anticipate more problems as the rainy season is just about to start.”

Photo: Sarah Simpson/IRIN

The port at Bissau is a ship's gravyard

Yet the investments involved to set things right and perhaps raise life expectancy from current levels of 45 years, are relatively miniscule. A six-month draft government budget of US $187 million is before parliament, and if approved, about 10 percent or $1.8 million will be shared between the health and education sectors. This will not be enough however to bring Simao Mendes Hospital up to internationally acceptable standards.

And before actually spending, the cash-strapped government will need to raise over 60 percent of the budget from donors, including funds needed to pay civil servants’ salaries, currently in arrears by two months. The government is acutely aware it must cut spending, and one area for cut-backs is trimming the inflated civil service, the prime minister told IRIN.

“We need to reform, we need to change lots of things…We must reduce the number of civil servants and modernise their work methods,” said Gomes, although he declined to say how many people might be made redundant.

Defence and security is the joint top government expense, consuming 11.5 percent of the draft government budget. So the government is working with the military to develop a programme to reduce the size of the army, said Gomes, which will include retiring older soldiers off and re-training others.

Guinea Bissau’s turbulent coup history, in which the current head of the armed forces, Tagme Na Wai, has played an active role, indicates that a reduction of army jobs could be a spark for trouble.

Gomes is hopeful that Guinea Bissau has closed the door on the cycle of coups - the most recent taking place in 2003 - but says: “No country can guarantee that absolutely, especially those countries that know economic and social difficulty.”

Photo: Sarah Simpson/IRIN

These two women had to sleep two to a bed in the maternity ward of Simao Mendes Hospital, Bissau

Since 2000, economic growth in Guinea Bissau has largely stagnated and even contracted, according to IMF figures. The economy is based almost entirely on subsistence agriculture, though Guinea Bissau is a net food importer, and there is a virtual absence of manufacturing or industrialised economic activity.

Some 80 percent of the population living on less than US $2 a day, according to a 2004 National Millennium Development Goal Report.

“One year things got so bad that we didn’t get paid for nine months!” said fireman Djaura. “We are patriots, we love our country, we do our job - even though we are sometimes not paid.”

“Many times a fireman can go home without the hope of food on the table but we won’t give up,” vowed Djaura. “We hope that one day things will get better.”

To read the interview with Prime Minister Aristides Gomes in full, CLICK HERE

SS/CCR