Trouble at the Water Plant

On Tuesday, Liberia's only working water plant was out of action for the day due to a system breakdown. Can you imagine a whole country without running water? Its true, the majority of Liberia's population rely on wells and hand-pumps for their water, but most people in the city of Monrovia buy their water on the street, which comes from one or two water pipes that reach the edge of the city, and is then bought up the hill in 5-litre jugs in hand-carts and sold for 25LD per jug (25p or 50c). So on Tuesday, with no water in the line, there was no water to buy in the city. Can you image that? No washing or flushing for the whole day. Supply to the ship also dried up, but fortunately we have reserves in our tanks that will last for weeks if we are careful. On Tuesday afternoon our Second Engineer and Chief Electrician went to the Water Plant and managed to get things going again. Phew. Photo of a Water Boy selling his water. Olly