Striving for a Sustainable, Efficient LWSC -Managing Director Mo Ali Lays Out His Admin’s Plans

MONROVIA – Last year, Mr. Mo Ali, Managing Director of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation was voted by a number of public institutions as the best performing public servant, and for the right reasons. He wants to expand water distribution across Liberia and add new dynamisms to water production. This special Analyst article speaks to his accomplishments, challenges, and his big plans for the future in which Mr. Ali unravels some of the bold visions he intends to achieve in the next five years, as well as what he considers to be a crowning moment or legacy for his administration.

“That crowning achievement for me will be to reach water supply to all the 15 county capitals, and also reach water supply to big towns like Ganta, Karnplay, and other places; but first, the first capitals. Pleebo, like Bopolu, has never had water supply and that is the most populated city in the Southeast. We are going to carry water there. Next year, we will consider other places. For me, the crowning moment will be for the county capitals and bigger cities to get water supply,” Mr. Ali said.

Making the disclosure recently during a one-on-one interview with the Liberia New Agency (LINA), Managing Director Mo Ali, when quizzed about his administration’s quest for improvement of a water sector that has long suffered chronic underinvestment, poor infrastructure, and limited reach beyond Monrovia, admitted that the LWSC under his helm has not reached the he turning point; yet it has started the journey of recovery.

“I think it’s the start of a very long journey. The entity was established in 1973 to provide water and sewerage services for Monrovia, the county capitals, and communities that have populations of 5,000 and above. The structure that we have today was constructed in 1953, and the LWSC for the wrong reasons had been underperforming. We don’t like to blame anyone, but we thought they were management issues.

“We are not getting extra support, but we believe that the collective effort that we’re making to transform the institution is starting a revolution at the entity,” Mr. Ali said.

The Bopolu Water Project

Speaking on the LWSC flagship Bopolu Water Station project which has been hailed by the people of Gbarpolu County as a huge, life-changing initiative, Mr. Ali said the project was conceived by Gparpolu County Senator Amara Konneh who approached the LWSC and said the city has never got a running water supply.

“For the most part, the people there draw water from creeks, wells or hand pumps. And so, he pleaded with the LWSC and then we all lobbied with the Ministry of Finance and the Legislature to make budgetary allocation for the project there. The initial thought was that we would have got US$500,000 to run the pipe through the entire town so that people can have easy access. Well, we did not get that. We got US$250,000, and then we sent out the bid and contractors came in. Eventually, Tenda, a company that has been implementing projects for the LWSC since the administration of Madam Sirleaf through to former President Weah and now, was selected based on their experience and their efficiency in working. So, they constructed the water project.

“The people there are excited because there are several things that come with water being on the premises or easily accessible. When you notice that kids have to wake up early in the morning from 4 to 5, especially during the dry season, to go and fetch water at one hand pump, it’s tiring. Most of these kids you see in class, they are sleeping because they have to wake up as early as 4-5 to go and fetch water. The water supply would cause such a situation to stop and give the kids time to rest and focus more on their lesson. The second thing is it also helps to reduce the spread of water-borne diseases like diarrhea and other things,” Managing Director Ali said.

Regarding the Water Station price tag of US$250,000 which some people think it’s too high, while others say the money could be spent somewhere else, MD Ali said the people of the Gbarpolu or Bopolu deserve development just like others in any part of the country.

“Maybe they believe that the people of Gbarpolu or Bopolu do not deserve to have good water supply, but we don’t think that way. We believe that everywhere in this place deserves a better, clean water supply; and that will also eliminate people getting out at odd hours to go and get water.

“The price tag, anybody who says the cost is high does not understand what we mean when we say a pipe network is laid in a community. It’s not just that you went and dug well and put one pump on it. No, that’s not it. That system has a pip network well laid out. There are three different sizes. We have the four-inch pipe which is the main transmission line that transmits water from the well to the reservoir, and from the reservoir to the community. The length of that 4-inch pipe is above 1.7 kilometers.

“Then we also have the secondary transmission line which is a 2-inch pipe that is around 1.3 kilometers. Then we have the tertiary transmission line which actually connects to homes that we connected. It is a ¾-inch pipe, and that is around 239 meters. So, when you look at just the length of the pipe and then you look at the well connected to the reservoir by a submersible pump that communicates directly to the reservoir; so the reservoir has a floater that communicates to the pump in the well. So, when the water level reaches a certain point, it communicates to the pump in the well and begins to pump automatically. It is powered by a solar system.

“Besides that, the materials that were used in the majority of them were imported because it’s not just the ordinary pipe that they sell in the stores. Those pipes are meant to last for decades. Like I just told you, the pipe that was constructed for the Monrovia Water supply was done in 1953 and still surviving today until we are changing some. And so, it’s not that, but it involves labor cost. You’re digging more than 3 kilometers of ground to lay pipe, we didn’t carry machines to dig it. The company hired people from right there,” Mo Ali disclosed further.

Extending Water supply to 5 Counties in 2025

Quizzed on his ambitious goal of expanding pipe water services to five counties by the end of the year, especially given the fact that even Monrovia still struggles for adequate water supply, Managing Director Mo Ali admitted that initially, they had thought to extend pipe water to five counties this year.

“We had a negotiation with USAID where we did a complete engineering feasibility on the water system in Kakata and that of Buchanan. We have signed an agreement. By now, the construction and rehabilitation should have begun. But then we had the unfortunate work stop which has greatly affected us in a negative sense. But we will still move forward.

“The one with Zwedru, Pleebo, and Greenville, they are still on course. They are sending out bids to companies that should participate in the bidding process. We will award the contract based on the procurement procedures. So, we are on course with those three. And I’d like to say, like Gbarpolu, Bopolu has never got a water supply system. So, it’s going to be a brand-new water supply system that we will construct in Pleebo, Maryland.

“In Zwedru and Greenville, we will be rehabilitating. So, Greenville has been down since the early 90s during the civil crisis; and Zwedru was rehabilitated but then they went back down due to management issues and finances in 2019. We will be rehabilitating those two and constructing new systems,” MD Ali said.

Sustainability vision

Turning the tide at the LWSC would seem a Herculean task for the Mo Ali administration which inherited an institution with about US$7 million in unpaid bills, and a customer-based system where 5,000 out of the 14,000 people actually paid. Quizzed about the concrete steps his administration is taking to turn Water and Sewer into a self-sustaining revenue generating institution, Mr. Ali said the first thing is that almost everybody thinks that water should be free, and that the water they open from the tap, government is supposed to provide it free, that nobody is supposed to pay for it.

“And it is that mindset that people go with that makes them not pay water bills. The other thing is, nobody thinks that we pay thousands of dollars every day just for purification of the water system. We use seven to nine million United States dollars’ worth of electricity every year at the White Plains. To power the White Plains, you need 3 megawatts of electricity.

“We use chemicals to purify the water, three different chemicals, very expensive. We use alum to clear the dirt when the water is brown and dirty; we use hydrated lime to balance the PH, and then we use chlorine to cure the germs and the bacteria. We use pretty close to sixty to seventy thousand dollars’ worth of chemicals every month to purify the water, and then you take the labor cost, the distribution cost. It’s very expensive.

“So, what are we doing for sustainability? We have outsourced our Sanniquellie water system to a private contractor, and they have introduced the prepayment. Just within the 50 customers that have been issued prepaid meters, the revenue among those 50 customers has jumped from $300 to $2,000. We have now concluded with our Board of Directors that we will pilot the prepaid meters in Monrovia and Paynesville. We will start with the first 100 and 200, and businesses as well.

“This time around, once we start the prepaid meter, you will only use what you pay. Like electricity, if you put $20, we will issue you $20 worth of water. For example, US$25 will be 16.7 cubic meter worth of water. A cubic meter has 264 gallons. When you use it up, the meter locks, and then water doesn’t come. In that way, we don’t have to run behind you. When you pay, you get supplied, when you don’t pay, you don’t get supplied. Also, when we introduce that, we will have water vending points in communities that you can just walk to and pay for your water,” Mo Ali said.

A Leaner, efficient, effective workforce for a better LWSC

Regarding the ballooning workforce he inherited and how his administration intends to create a leaner, efficient and effective workforce, Mr. Ali said one of the first things his administration did was to draft and complete our workers’ manual, the HR and policy manual.

“And then we reprogrammed the organogram of the institution that tells us exactly how many employees that we need. The board of directors has approved those two working instruments and so we begin implementing them. It is not intended to target anyone. But one of the reasons why I came here is to make the system efficient and effective. And being efficient does not mean you must be overstaffed. In fact, being overstaffed creates ineffectiveness because when you walk in the building you see so many people with duplicated functions. It incurs expenses on the entity. The payroll when I took over at LWSC was between three hundred and eighty to three hundred and eight-two thousand United States Dollars every month. The entity is generating less than two hundred thousand dollars a month. So, you can see that we have to beg the Finance Ministry every month for money to pay the employees. The introduction of prepaid meters will eliminate the needs for meter readers and people who carry bills around. As it stands, the current system, when the month ends, people need to go in the field to read the meters. When you have prepaid meters, there is nothing about generating bills.

“We are also going to see if the technology can detect water leaks because that’s one of our major challenges. We lose a lot of water to leakage, more than 50 percent of what is pumped from White Plains goes through theft and leaks; and you have 25% going towards unpaid bills. In our studies, non-revenue water accounts for 60-70% of whatever we produce from White Plains,” he said.

Enhancing Credibility for Donors’ Confidence

Regarding his administration’s role in enhancing credibility with investors, international partners like World Bank, who have long called for improved governance in the water sector, Mr. Ali said this is a critical issue and does not only deal with international partners but local vendors as well.

“Let’s veer away from donors first and come to even local vendors. As it stands, no local vendor credits Water and Sewer. You go there and say ‘we want materials on credit’ they don’t give it to you because Water and Sewer owes almost everyone, and every day we are in court. And that’s not good for the entity’s credibility. Right now, everything we get we have to purchase cash.

“With the international partners, the donors, what we have to do is to ensure that we have projects with them. We have money from them in the form of grants or loans and to implement those projects according to the terms. When we took over Water and Sewer there is this project that has been running, it should have ran for a year but then because of some misunderstanding in the procurement processes between the contractor and the consultant, the project could not go on. So, we took over and the Word Bank said this is the last time we are going to talk about this project. If you can’t get it on track, it means that we will withdraw the funding. And so, we asked for another year’s extension. The World Bank granted that. The project is now on course; 10 kilometers of 48-inch pipes that should be replacing the current 36-inch pipe that supplies Monrovia should be arriving in the country on March 15, and we will offload them and break ground. By September we should complete laying of those 10-kilometer pipes, and that will improve our water supply, increase the water volume that we pump to Monrovia. So, the way to increase confidence and credibility is to implement as agreed between LWSC and donors. If you don’t do that, then there is a problem. Also, live by the terms. Account for whatever they give you. So, one of the things that we’ve done when we took over is to call for an audit for the last three years which the GAC has completed. But also, as part of our own internal policy now, we’ve asked the GAC to audit us every year, so that we know where are going wrong, where we are having missteps, and how we can correct them. We’ve communicated with the GAC, and the GAC will be doing audits every year as long as I am here. Those audit reports will be published so that partners can see, and Liberians can see. I believe that is the most efficient way of building the credibility of the entity,” Mr. Ali said.

Criticisms and praises

Quizzed about his past role as a vocal opposition figure who was often critical of government inefficiencies, and now he’s at the heart of state service delivery where he is facing the same financial and bureaucratic hurdles he once criticized in the past, Mo Ali said the transition from politics to public service comes with the territory, and that he expects people to criticize him for personal and institutional growth.

“Last night I was reading a profile, and they said in it, flowers require sun and rain to grow. As humans and politicians, we need both criticisms and praise to improve ourselves. If everybody is just praising you, you’re bound to fall and make mistakes. For us, we welcome the criticisms. There are challenges for us. They make us better. It hasn’t made much difference; it only teaches me that when you criticize other people and you are given the opportunity to serve, make sure to do it properly because there will be so many eyes on you. And I can understand the level of critique I go under probably more than any other government official, but I understand that and I like it because it is a challenge to me. It keeps me on track, it reminds me everyday that I need to do the right thing, and I need to perform in the position that I am in. So, for me, I welcome the criticism because it’s going to help improve our working environment and help us succeed at Water and Sewer,” Managing Director Mo Ali said unequivocally.