By Umaru Fofana
Flash floods continue to wreak havoc across Sierra Leone. The heavy downpour this week has left thousands displaced along the Freetown peninsula and hundreds more in Sulima in the southern Pujehun District.
This comes after more than 700 were displaced in Kailahun District. Seven deaths were confirmed in Freetown with hundreds more displaced after floods hit parts of the capital last week.
According to the Chairman of the Western Area District Council, Kasho Holland-Cole, more than 2,000 people were displaced in Tombo, Kerry Town and other coastal towns along the peninsula after more than five hours of nonstop rain.
Many of the displaced people have been camped in a community school with others staying with their relatives.
“We want to relocate them from this area [because] definitely it will be flooded again” he said. He said the relocation would be permanent because the area would always be flooded due to its closeness to the sea and the deforestation.
Holland-Cole said the magnitude of the destruction was huge with several houses completely brought down by the heavy downpour.
At the time of going to press the water levels had receded but more rain seemed imminent as families were busy picking up the pieces.
One lady told Politico that her home got flooded so fast that she had no time to save any of her belongings. “It was very fast and I stood there in water up to my thigh”, she said.
Another lady, Mammy Fatu, was busy washing what she could salvage. She said throughout her 20 years living in Tombo she had never seen anything like it.
“The water was fast and heavy. I lost everything…I am confused,” she said, before adding that things would have been a lot worse if the downpour had started at night.
Several government ministers and other officials, as well as UN and aid agencies were on ground, coordinated by the Office of National Security.
Many of the houses and shacks that were brought down were built on waterways. The ferocity of the water gushing down hours after the rain had ceased suggests that the catchment areas of the mountain have been ripped off.
Residents said it was commonplace for trees to be felled for wood and charcoal.
In Sulima more than 500 people are currently displaced after flash floods hit the town. The town chief, Siaka Massaquoi said much of his town still remained under water, some 24 hours after the floods.
“In total, 95 houses were affected, 14 of which collapsed completely” he told Politico.
He said 550 people had been rendered displaced, with the ONS and other agencies having visited the place but no relief supplies for the people.
© 2019 Politico Online
