Let us settle for the fact that lack of implementation of laid down rules and regulations as well as memoranda of understanding is in itself the beginning of corruption. With regards to the environment, absence of action has gone on to such an extent that the nation is now constrained to pay umpteen times what it should have saved us by positive action. The fact is that anybody with the remotest connection with the establishment is an exception to the law and there have been hundreds of thousands of them over the decades. Lip service to the cessation of the syndrome has not been lacking. If anything there has been a chorus of them.
It will not be fair to point accusing fingers at the incumbents alone .It is a problem that has been glossed over the years and there is no knowing where it would lead.We are poised to inhabit a bald country in the next couple of decades if the reckless trend is not scuppered.
An environment is one that seeks to protect the environment and by definition all those employed in the Environmental Protection Agency are environmentalists. Their success in protecting our environment depends to a large extent on their protection by the government by way of implementing the environmental laws .It is Freetown with its mountainous topography that is suffering most from deforestation. The irony of the situation is that if all the lands in the rural areas were utilized, the capital city would have preserved its lost forests. But the political will is not there for fear of alienating potential voters. There is scarcely any need for recapping that the Urban migration was exacerbated by our civil war caused by the injustices of the APC-led government.
Man is doing everything inexcusable on land and sea to destroy his habitat and raison d ‘etre .It should be realized that if some animals and plants become extinct they cannot be created by human beings who themselves are created by God. This is a world-wide phenomenon. The fact is that there is no indefinite number of any created things on earth. The partial success of the last world climate change conference in Paris, underlines the urgency of the situation.
We provide all sorts of future facilities for posterity mindless of the fact that all these cannot be of any use to them if the environment is not right. We are also unmindful of the fact that the environment we are enjoying today was hard-worked for by our ancestors.
Ingratitude
Aside from constructions in water catchment areas, two of the factors responsible for our environmental degradation are firewood and charcoal burning and timber production. As far as wood and charcoal burning are concerned, it is a question of alternatives. If people cannot use these commodities for fuel what else? It is a matter of survival. Where is the quid pro quo? I bet that Singapore, with which we gained independence at about the same time, would not have it citizens using firewood but gas cookers and electricity because they have not limited these basic facilities to a handful of corrupt politicians.
On larger and more commercial scale is the timber industry which has lately been State House–centered and subjected to all sorts of corruption. In this regard, the Forestry Department has been side-lined and rendered almost redundant while the big boys are doing their worst regardless. Corruption is now bare-faced and the fraudsters think we are taking silence as golden .No way! This silence is criminal .When a fish starts to get rotten it starts from the head. Are you surprised? Like the Ebola threat that was taken lightly until it consumed the nation, the warning that Sierra Leone is one of the three most vulnerable nations to climate change in the world of over 190 nations is being taken with a pinch of salt .Rather ,the accent is on Mamamah Airport at the expense of water supply. One would have pity for those nesting on the hillsides, cliffs and valleys. But who cares? Meanwhile, members of the elite will be snug and secure in their lodges and safe catchment areas. It is imperative to establish a Disaster Reduction Task Force now in place of the redundant Political Affairs Ministry.
Editors note : Readers would recall that this article was written one year before the August 14th ,2017 mudslide at Matormeh and other areas in Freetown.