Bafata gets safe water supply

The people of Guinea Bissau’s second largest town, Bafata, can look forward to clean, safe drinking water now that relative calm has returned to the country. The logistics officer for the emergency department of Oxfam in Britain, Frazer Murray, told IRIN yesterday from Bafata that the NGO had been able to instal safe water supply systems for the town and at the village community level. “We hope this will cut the diarrhoeal and cholera [incidences] below the national levels,” he said. Oxfam is also renovating Bafata’s main water tank and pumping station in Trisilin, a Bafata neighbourhood. Once this work is complete and electricity restored, Murray said, the town’s 125,000 residents will be assured of clean drinking water. Various other organisations were handling the repairs to some of the town’s dilapidated water supply systems before the civil war in June. Oxfam, an emergency response NGO, was called in three months ago and has since taken over the work. Hospitals have been provided with water pumps and Oxfam has installed similar systems in Gabu, Cacheu and Bambadinca about 125 km east of Bissau. Murray said that Oxfam, in conjunction with Plan International, MSF and CARITAS had taken over all water supply-related activities.