Monrovia, Liberia – A 36-inch transmission pipeline burst beneath a railroad track in Louisiana’s Lower Montserrado County, causing a significant water outage that has affected Central Monrovia and the neighboring areas. Amid growing inconvenience, the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) asked for cooperation from the public and warned that repairs might take up to three weeks.
Following the breach, which has caused supply disruptions to thousands of households, businesses, and public institutions, LWSC closed the pipeline on Friday, May 9. LWSC Deputy Managing Director for Technical Services Patrick Sandikie and Managing Director Mohammed Ali informed reporters during a site visit that the repair work is technically difficult and challenging.
“In order to reach the damaged area, we have started excavation and are awaiting Ministry of Transportation approval to dig across the train track. This is the first instance of a pipeline burst beneath a railroad line that LWSC has had to handle,” Sandikie stated.
Smaller pipes and underground mini-systems are part of LWSC’s limited contingency plan to alleviate the shortfall. Bushrod Island will be temporarily supplied by a 16-inch pipe, while New Georgia and portions of the Freeway corridor will be supplied with water from a nearby subsurface system.
A mini-system in Paynesville will service the people of Sole Clinic, Omega G-5, and portions of the Zayzay community. Still, a large portion of Paynesville will not have access to piped water. Residents of Central Monrovia will have depended on commercial water trucks that are provided by LWSC’s still-open Airfield station.
Despite describing the procedure as extremely costly, Sandikie failed to provide the whole cost of the repair, citing continuing technical evaluations. He said that “we are spending more than $800 every day only to hire the equipment. Additionally, following repairs, we have to restore the rail, which raises the cost even further.”
According to him, the impacted pipeline, which was first installed in the 1950s, has burst six times recently, three times under the present administration and three times during the previous administration. Last year, a little repair cost the company over $54,000.
