The Guma Valley Water Company in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources and other implementing partners under the Freetown Water Supply and Sanitation Master Plan and Investment Studies Project on Thursday 6th October 2022, held a 1-day workshop on Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) at the New Freetown City Council Building, in Freetown.

The objective of the workshop was to promote stakeholders’ understanding and experience of the institutionalization of the Integrated Urban Water Management coordination approach.

Welcoming participants to the workshop on behalf of the Guma Board and Management, Ing. Francis Lahai, Deputy Managing Director and Project Coordinator, said Integrated Urban Water Management is a new concept in the water sector in Sierra Leone and that it involves up to 20 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

He informed the participants of the different platforms and support groups that have been developed over the past two years and the progress made so far to institutionalize the IUWM at the Ministry of Water Resources.

In his statement, Ing. Maada S. Kpenge, Managing Director of the Guma Valley Water Company said that the institutionalization of the integrated urban water management (IUWM) coordination approach will integrate planning for water with other urban sector players such as land use, housing, energy, transportation, etc, to avoid fragmentation and duplication in policies and decision making to ensure a more secure and resilient water future.

Ing. Kpenge added that the Master Plan Project in which the IUWM is embedded has given the people of the Western Area the roadmap and the direction to take them to where they want to go as far as water and sanitation are concerned. “The master plan studies have identified 66 interventions, dams, and reservoirs in various locations right across the Western Area Peninsula and over 80 interventions for sanitation, stormwater management, and solid waste management. These interventions will meet the future water needs of the Western Area up to the year 2050”.

He informed the workshop that the IUWM Unit is temporarily housed at the Guma Building but that it will soon relocate to the Ministry of Water Resources and will be supervised by the Minister.

Concluding his statement, MD Kpenge said the Ministries of Water Resources and Finance and Guma will be organizing a donor roundtable conference to seek interests and funding for the various interventions under the Freetown Water and Sanitation Master Plan and Investment Studies Project.

The Chief Director at the Ministry of Environment, Edward Bendu said his ministry is working with over 34 community-based organizations across the country to plant 1.6 million trees to restore degraded forests and water catchment areas as part of their effort to the IUWM approach.

Presentations on the Institutionalization of IUWM, its challenges, and opportunities for the Western Area were done by the IUWM Technical Assistant, Joel Kamanda, and his team; this was followed by group discussions and a Question and Answer session.

The workshop attracted participants from the Freetown City Council, Western Area District Council, Ministries of Water Resources, Finance, Agriculture and Forestry, Lands, Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Environment, Economic Planning and Development, SLRA, etc; and the proceedings were moderated by the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Brima Sowa.