By Mohamed Juma Jalloh
The headline seems alarming but in actual fact it only highlights that Sierra Leone is not yet out of the woods as far natural disasters is concerned.
It is often said that one should prepare for war when there is peace. When this phenomenon is missing then there will be an ominous looming danger.
The decade long civil war struck when we were completely unprepared for war. On a similar note the dreadful Ebola outbreak wreaked havoc because our health system was in ruins, notwithstanding the disease was new to the region.
Even when we evidently saw the signs and the handwriting on the wall, that the possibility of that deadly outbreak in our country was imminent, Government was still complacent. When it eventually struck we were taken off-guard.
Many Sierra Leoneans are oblivious of the fact that, on August 14, 2017, we lost over 1000 of our brothers and sisters to that shocking flood and horrible mudslide at Mortormeh Regent in Freetown.
Preliminary findings of a rapid disaster assessment, developed by ONS and the World Bank, were presented to former President Koroma. The report focused on the economic cost of the disaster, recognizing the massive loss of human life and the sufferings of those who lost loved ones. The loss cannot be monetized.
The survivors of that disaster were supplied with relief items while a temporal site was constructed by three indigenous construction companies for their subsequent relocation.
With no disaster management institution in the country, the Office of National Security (O.N.S.) was mandated to handle the relief exercise. It was heavily castigated by the real victims for giving little tokens in tranches that could not even rent a house.
Interestingly, the process was also marred by political interference as the names of the real victims were substituted for people who never got a taste of the disaster.
Having learnt their experience of corruption during the Ebola outbreak, international donor partners circumvented government officials and channeled their resources to international relief agencies like UNICEF, Oxfam and Save the Children.
One year on, from the worst natural disaster in West Africa, there are still more questions than answers on the lips of many Sierra Leoneans.
Is government so insensitive to the point that it can allow people to reside in Disaster Prone Areas (DPA)? Or is it that politics is at play in all of these? Where are the political will and the security? Why are slums proliferating daily? What is the fate of slum dwellers? Who really cares? When will the next disaster strike? When will the residents of DPA be relocated? These questions and more still remain unanswered.
The Bio-led government has been lauded for the national cleaning exercise, as it is generally pinpointed that the blockage of garbage in streams and gutters does exacerbate the floods. However, the loss of forest and the spread of urbanization have brought more challenges to disaster prevention and management.
Population explosion, over the years, has led squatters to occupy water ways, streams, gulley, swamps, creeks and other natural habitats. In the event of flooding these makeshift structures are easily inundated.
The fact remains that our disaster preparedness, as a nation, is still a joke. Nevertheless, the Bio-led government must not be hopeless about the situation; it must take the bull by the horn.
Better still, if it appears impossible for the government to take the people out of the DPA, it can as well take the DPAs out of the People. It is often said that a stitch in time saves nine.