Religious Pilgrimages are not the priority for Sierra Leone. It's Man-Made Disasters



In the second flash flooding to swamp Freetown, less than two years after a mudslide killed hundreds in Sierra Leone's capital, at least five people are dead.

Torrential rain overwhelmed the city's drainage system, creating waterways that churned down streets, according to eyewitness reports posted in real-time on social media.
"Report disasters as a result of today’s downpour to the FCC’s Disaster Response Team," Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr urged on her official Facebook page at 8:24 a.m. on Friday, August 2. 

 In stark contrast, authorities at State House made no reference to the disaster in its post on Saturday, August 3, only saying the president and vice president "bid farewell to about 900 Sierra Leoneans performing this year’s Islamic pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca, Saudi Arabia."

In 2015, floods killed 10 people and left thousands homeless. Two years later, flooding and mudslides in Freetown killed nearly 500 people, reported Clarence Roy-Macaulay for the Associated Press.

 "At the time, some critics accused the government of not learning from past disasters in a city where many poor areas are near sea level and lack good drainage,"  he noted on August 2, 2019.
"The aggressive illegal felling of trees on the hillsides of Freetown, and illegal settlements coupled with people living in filth and squalor under bridges and areas susceptible to landslide or mudslides during heavy rains exemplify ignorance about environmental and ecological catastrophes during unusually heavy rainfall," wrote a political and social commentator on Facebook.

"Recklessly clogging drainages with garbage adds to the catastrophe. Incidentally, the flooding in Freetown is just one of many disasters in the West Africa subregion."

Reporting on the Freetown Kroo Bay slum floods for the third year in a row, Swit Salone said Sierra Leone ranked 138 out of 172 countries prone to natural disaster as measured in the World Risk Index, which is calculated by the United Nations University for Environment and Human Security.

A pilgrimage is often described as a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. It is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. 

Isn't it time for Sierra Leone's political leaders and those who elect them to make a metaphorical journey into their own beliefs?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ebola: The More We Learn, the More We Realize How Much We Don't Know

Image
Alex Bonapha, chairman, Kailahun District Council O bservers say the controversy erupting in Kailahun over the case of a dead baby might just open up critical questions on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. "While the child appears to be at the center of this controversy, the real question being raised here is the mode of transmission: Is this virus transmitted or transfused?" asks Chernor Bah, chairman of the African Socialist Movement of Sierra Leone. Bah thinks “we need to listen to Mr. Bonapha's concerns.” A lex Bonapha is chairman of Kailahun District Council. In a tersely worded statement sent out Saturday, Bonapha said: "We are strongly contesting the validity of the one case today in Kailahun.  A young child of 9 months, fell ill and was hospitalised at the Nixon Memorial Hospital in Segbwema. They requested blood transfusion and a donor offered his blood. Eventually the child died and a swab was collected to verify the cause of death. It is this
Read more

28 Years Since the Death of Salami Coker

In words that echoed around the world, a commission of inquiry in Sierra Leone held the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) responsible for extrajudicial killings in1992. The junta's attempt to justify these executions retrospectively by decree, on the basis that the 26 people were alleged coup plotters, was an unlawful abuse of executive power, the commission said. In particular, the Commission found that the deputy chairman of the NPRC, Solomon A.J. Musa, was personally responsible for acts of torture on detainees. They called the executions a flagrant violation of international standards.   Among those executed on December 29, 1992, were: Lt. Col James Yaya Kanu, former commanding officer of the 4th Battalion James Bambay Kamara, former Inspector General of Police Corporal Mohammed Mansaray, alias Candapa of the 1st Battalion Warrant Officer Class 1 Kargbo, alias Fernando of the 1st Battalion headquarters Lieutenant colonel (Rtd.) Kahota M.S. Dumbuya, Army Headquarters.
Read more