Recently, The Gambia Petroleum Company, as part of its efforts to uphold its social responsibilities, and in a deliberate effort to minimise the growing water problem in the village of Mandinaring, came to the aid of the villagers, providing them with a mobile tank filled with water.

The development came at a time when water scarcity is being felt far and wide in communities like this, in the month of Ramadan.
The Daily Observer caught up with a long queue of villagers helping themselves from the tank.

The Alkalo of the village, Fah Ceesay, seized the opportunity to shower praises on the company for their “timely” intervention, a move he said was part of a fulfillment of some of the agreements between the villagers and the company.

He added that there were many more development projects within the framework of the agreement, including the digging of a borehole which, he disclosed, was near completion.

Mr Ceesay also mentioned the provision of a health centre, electricity, and the construction of a mosque, as being among other important projects covered by the agreement.

Alkalo Ceesay further highlighted the cause of much of the water problems of the village, blaming it on the village’s close proximity to river tributaries. He said that this makes salt concentration in their water high, rendering it unsuitable for consumption. But he assured people that very soon the water problem would be a thing of the past.

Various other speakers on the ground, Mbasally Sonko, Mariama Cham, Mariama Touray, Kumba Mboob, and Bintou Saidy, all expressed similar sentiments, thanking the company for their intervention. They used the opportunity to raise their concerns about the lack of marketplace.