Published: October 28, 2026
MONROVIA — Finance and Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan used the commissioning of a World Bank-funded water main on Tuesday to hit back at critics asking where Liberia’s billion-dollar revenue has gone. He said even US$5 billion would not solve the country’s problems and that those demanding new projects were, in effect, calling for the abandonment of unfinished ones.
By Lennart Dodoo
“We are humble enough to say the billions that we’ve raised cannot solve all the problems,” Ngafuan said at the White Plains Water Treatment Plant. “Even US$5 billion [budget], I usually say, is not enough for all the problems and challenges we face. So we prioritize our priorities.”
Ngafuan was there to dedicate 10 kilometers of new 48-inch transmission pipeline that carries treated water toward Monrovia. The project was negotiated under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2016 and financed through two administrations. But he spent much of his speech defending the Boakai administration’s record against what he described as a steady claim that nothing is being done.
“Every day, many other good things are happening across this country. But, every day you’ve been told that nothing is happening across the country,” he said.
He rejected the argument that the government should launch new projects rather than complete inherited ones. He cited the southeastern highway, which he said now reaches Tapita, with contracts awarded to continue it to Toe Town and on to Zwedru with World Bank support. Pushing for new projects at the expense of such roads, he said, “will be an advocacy for abandonment of projects.”
“If you had finished everything old, we will focus on the new,” Ngafuan said.
He said much of the visible progress depends on the government servicing its debts to lenders, including financing for the water project he was commissioning, and urged critics to check the debt service portion of the budget. He said the government had to unlock financing for one road project because it had defaulted on payments to its funders.
“Some of the progress you see is because this government is paying,” he said.
As evidence of where the money is going, Ngafuan said the government has put more than 800 chiefs and local government officials on the payroll since July. He pointed to new science buildings at Tubman University, a new health complex at Grand Gedeh University, a new hospital in Grand Gedeh and new military barracks in Nimba.
He also argued that the administration, in office for almost three years, should not be judged on commitments it scheduled for later. He said some items in the government’s development agenda were always meant for delivery in 2028 and 2029, the years leading into the next general elections.
“We didn’t say we’ll finish it now. We’ll finish it. Watch and see,” he said.
The finance minister recalled that the White Plains facilities were vandalized and looted during the civil war “not once, not twice, but many times.” He described the new pipeline as “not an issue of our administration, but it is an achievement of our people.” He closed by saying development belongs to Liberians, not to any government. “Regime will come, regime will go,” he said.
The water project itself shows both his argument and its limits. The new pipe replaces the most rupture-prone 10 kilometers of a 36-inch main built in 1968, but 15.4 kilometers of the old 25.4-kilometer line remain in service. During a post-ceremony tour, an engineer showed officials a flow meter on the new line. He said it was running at 7% of the pipe’s capacity because pumping more water would rupture the old pipe beyond kilometer 10.
Ngafuan said replacing the rest will cost US$25 million to US$30 million, and that the government would keep pushing until it secures the money. He said the sector was left without a lead donor last year when a major bilateral partner withdrew its support after other donors had already shifted to other sectors. He did not name the partner.
“I can say jokingly but somberly that the water sector became an orphan,” he said.
He said he is working with the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation to find new backers, including the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank. He said government budget support to the corporation rose from about US$1.65 million in 2023 to about $ 10.1 million in fiscal 2026, roughly six times as much in under three years.
“We will not put you in the battlefront and not give you ammunition,” he told the corporation’s management.
Managing Director Mohammed Ali said he believed this was the first time any government had funded the corporation to this extent. He listed water systems due in Pleebo and Greenville by March and in Zwedru by June.
The government’s claim of progress met a local challenge at the same ceremony. Montserrado County District 1 Rep. Rugie Yatu Barry said communities around the White Plains plant, which host the facility and endured the excavation, still have no piped water.
“We shouldn’t be the one cooking the food and dish it up, and then we can’t even taste it,” Barry said.
Ali said the communities lack water because the 1958 and 1968 pipelines were laid before they existed and had no outlets. The new pipe has three outlets for communities along its route, he said, but the pipes needed to connect them have not been laid.
In recorded remarks played at the ceremony, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai thanked the World Bank and asked it for more financing to complete the remaining transmission line. A World Bank representative said the investment’s value will depend on keeping the system well operated and maintained.
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