By Ebrima Mbaye
In Jarreng village, Niamina Senior Secondary School students struggle daily with little to do with textbooks or exams. Clutching plastic pipes at the school’s only borehole, they wait for drops of water that rarely come. For weeks, a technical failure has rendered the borehole inoperable, plunging the school into a water crisis that is disrupting education and threatening the futures of hundreds of young Gambians.
The school’s sole water source, the broken borehole, has left students and staff grappling with dire conditions. Basic needs like drinking, handwashing, and sanitation are unmet without clean water, creating a ripple effect that undermines the learning environment. “We can’t teach properly. Students leave class to find water. It’s affecting everything—hygiene, attendance, and morale,” Amadou Kujabi, a staff member, told The Alkamba Times.
Niamina Senior Secondary School serves hundreds of students from surrounding rural communities, many of whom walk long distances to attend classes. Education is a lifeline to a better future for these students, but the water crisis is forcing them to prioritize survival over studies.
Many spend hours trekking into Jarreng village to fetch water, often missing lessons. “Sometimes we just stay in the village instead of going back to class,” one student said, her voice heavy with resignation.
The crisis disproportionately affects female students, who face additional challenges during menstruation or hot days when the lack of water compromises their hygiene and dignity. Some girls have stopped attending school altogether, further widening gender gaps in education.
The school’s management has estimated the borehole’s repair cost to be D90,000—a sum far beyond their limited budget. With no immediate funding from government sources or external partners, the school is stuck in a holding pattern and unable to address the root cause of the crisis.
“This is not just a pipe problem. It is a future problem,” Kujabi emphasized. “Without water, we are losing hours, days, and the motivation of young people who want to learn.”
Photos from the school paint a vivid picture of the struggle: students, some as young as 12, work together to coax water from the broken borehole, holding up long plastic pipes in a futile effort to collect enough for basic needs. These images capture the harsh reality of infrastructure gaps in rural Gambia, where access to water remains a barrier to education.
The Jarreng community is now issuing an urgent plea for help. School leaders and village elders appeal to government agencies, NGOs, philanthropists, and Gambians in the diaspora to fund the repair of the borehole. “We need water before we can have education,” one student said, summing up the stark choice facing the community.
The Niamina Senior Secondary School crisis highlights a broader issue in rural Gambia, where inadequate infrastructure undermines development goals. While Jarreng’s students’ thirst for knowledge remains strong, the lack of clean water casts a long shadow over their aspirations. Without swift intervention, the community fears that another generation may be robbed of the education they so desperately seek.
