In order to mitigate rainy season disasters, International Office forMigration (IOM), and the Mano River Union (MRU) together with other partners, on Monday 23 July 2018, started a two-day meeting at the Bintumani Hotel to map out a disaster strategy plan.
According to the Chair, Commander Hassan Conteh, the frequent occurrence of disasters all over the world has been a major concern. He added that due to manmade activities the world is experiencing so many outbreaks.
The Head of Office at IOM, Sanusi Savage, said the last disaster affected 6,000 lives, citing that it is the most deadly disaster that had occurred in the history of Sierra Leone in terms of lives lost. He called for combined effort to fight disaster, noting that the rate of disasters in country is very alarming.
Savage said they are prepared to fight any outbreak citing 120 officials trained in Bo to mitigate further disaster and disaster management at elementary schools in order to brief pupils about the dos and don’ts when it comes to disasters.
The Secretary General of MRU, Medina A. Wesseh, said “At any moment various forms of disaster is occurring in the Sub region.” She said pillar 4 of their plan is geared to address issues of social development, women and children. “We must plan to use rain water and plan to avoid flooding,” noting that their 2010-2020 strategic plan is calling for such protection.
The Coordinator of Office of National Security (ONS) Brigadier General John Oluwole Tucker, said, “ Sierra Leone is vulnerable to various manmade disasters.” Climate change has also posed a great challenge. The Coordinator mentioned that the activities of man such as stone and sand mine, deforestation and land grabbing amongst others is leading to major outbreaks in the country.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Edward Soluku, said the Ebola outbreak and the landslide and flash flood disasters were wakeup calls. MJB/23/7/18
By Mohamed J. Bah
Thursday July 26, 2018.
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