While the government and international agencies are making what the UN calls "considerable" progress on reducing drug trafficking in Sierra Leone, the trafficking - coupled with youth unemployment and corruption - remains one of the most destabilizing forces in the country, officials say.

The country's anti-corruption commissioner Abdul Tejan-Cole told IRIN: "Corruption, drugs and youth unemployment are the biggest destabilizing forces in Sierra Leone. Unless urgent steps are taken, [these] could pose serious risks."

Drug trafficking in Sierra Leone risks undermining government efforts to fight corruption - part of reforms that include security sector restructuring, infrastructure building and job creation, said Bernard Mokam, head of the UN Development Programme in Sierra Leone. "One of the international community's biggest priorities must be to contain trafficking, promote youth employment, and protect Sierra Leone's territorial waters."

Stability in Sierra Leone remains fragile despite the government having made impressive gains to rebuild, UN Secretary-General l Ban Ki-moon said in a 10 June communiqué.

Freetown — Despite some impressive gains in rebuilding Sierra Leone seven years after the end of its brutal civil war, the situation in the West African nation remains fragile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.

"The outbreak of political violence in March of this year was a wake-up call on challenges that require urgent and continued attention," Mr. Ban told the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission's high-level meeting on Sierra Leone.

The governing All People's Congress (APC) and the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) signed a Joint Communiqué on 2 April, ending violence that threatened to spiral out of control between the two parties in early March.

"I commend President Koroma, government and opposition leaders and ordinary Sierra Leoneans for rising above differences and overcoming the recent crisis," said Mr. Ban, adding that the adoption of the agreement "has renewed hope in Sierra Leone's journey toward peace and prosperity."

Water is a necessary resource for the survival of living organism, especially humankind. In most of Africa, mainly in Sierra Leone today, water is perennially scarce. Its insatiable demand has outstripped a stagnated or disrupted supply.

In a dusty and thirsty capital city Freetown, with scourging heat and temperatures reaching the extremes, this could trigger dehydration and other health challenges. However, exposure to moderate sunshine is a source of vitamin D: It lowers cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, regulates the immune system and stimulates the production of insulin.

I discern solace knowing that this tiny nation of 6 million people about the size of Maine does not belong to a drought stricken perimeter. Instability, precipitated by this recovering nation’s decade long civil war, compounded with related economic setbacks had motivate the exodus of folk in search of a better life. Cultural milieu as psyche attracted migration to Freetown, where rural nomadic dwellers anticipate embracing their quintessential dream life.

Reality unlike fallacy would render folk homeless, starving, and despondent, in a city, where cut-throat competition, resilience to survive, and dynamics of a ruthless capitalism system prevail. In a functional democracy government has no mandate to impede free movement of citizens from one region of the country to another.

People are attracted to live where the most favorable conditions of living most likely exist. The ripple effects would implode on the scarce resources the migrants naturally consume, including water, food, housing, and job opportunities. Invariably the status quo is ill equipped to handle this monumental upsurge in demand for goods and services, especially clean and safe drinking water.

A city that was initially projected to serve about 300,000 - 500,000 residents, bears the Herculean burden of catering for about 1.2 million people, according to 1994 estimates. The rapid explosion is the tidal hurricane that government and local communities would have to wrestle with.