The majority of Liberians in towns, cities and villages alike are still drinking dirty water more than three years after the end of the country’s civil war, a recently released joint United Nations and Liberian government survey says.

The Comprehensive Food Security and Nutrition Survey, which was carried out nationwide late last year among 5,000 Liberians, said 68 percent of people rely on untreated wells, rivers, ponds, creeks and swamps for drinking water. Even in the capital, Monrovia, Liberian water authorities said conditions are hardly better.

War decimates infrastructure

A 14-year civil war in Liberia destroyed the country's main water treatment plant at White Plains in the outskirts of the capital. It had pumped water to all parts of the country prior to the conflict.

A 2006 National Human Development Report said before the war 45 per cent of the country's population had access to piped, clean water, and all 15 of Liberia’s counties had water treatment facilities.

Hun-bu Tulay, the head of the state-owned Liberia Water and Sewage Corporation (LWSC), confirmed that at present the facility is only pumping 30 percent of the pre-war 18 million gallons of water daily.

"We are trying to extend our services throughout Monrovia through the assistance of our international partners like the European Union and the United Nations. We are hoping that within a year from now LWSC would be able to fully cover the entire of Monrovia," Tulay said.

Less than one third of Monrovia’s one million inhabitants had access to safe-drinking water, Tulay said.

Worse in dry season

The problem slightly worsens during the dry season when creeks run dry and water stagnates. The rainy season runs from April to September and the dry period usually falls between October and March.

While 34 percent of households draw water from safe sources during the rainy season, slightly less, 32 percent, draw water from such sources during the dry season, the UN and Liberian government report said.

Josiah Teah, a Liberian social worker based in heavily forested southeastern Sinoe County, an area identified by the survey as especially badly serviced by water infrastructure, told IRIN that finding safe drinking water there has been a problem.

"In Sinoe during the dry season people walk for more than 30 minutes to an hour from one town to another just to find drinking water and most of the water they drink is from the creek, which is very unsafe," Teah said.

This contributes to health problems that Liberian clinics and hospitals struggle to handle because of staff shortages and a lack of drugs.

"Most of the cholera and diarrhoea patients we come across are not careful of the water they drink, and because of the limited clean water supply they just drink any water they come across," said Emmanuel Sartie, an environmental health officer.