By Ibraheem Daramy
Growing up in Makeni, the beautiful hills on either side sandwiching this northeast regional powerhouse, Mena and Wusum, were a welcoming sight to the city’s serenity. The colonial administration had a preference for the former, where they built residences and offices for senior officials. Watching from down town those days, you would not notice there were humans up there until you take the strenuous walk. The entire place was covered by a thick forest – I remember we used to frequent there because it was such a paradise for some rare wild animals. Present day, that fortress has not been spared by desperate humans trying to satisfy their insatiable appetite for property. Ironically though, the boulders that used to be a couple of feet beneath the ground are among those threatening to end thier own very existence. We have all been too busy in the laboratory trying to figure what the problems truly are, but we have not been honest enough with ourselves in addressing them.
About a week ago, some parts of Makeni experienced some earth tremor, my part of town wasn’t affected, so I wouldn’t know the scale. But thank goodness there was not much to have left any visible damage. Suffice to say these are not welcoming signs. Unfortunately, apart from general observations, we are yet to get anything remotely related to an expert.
I was caught up at the center of Makeni on the 13/08/2024 because it was raining quite heavily that evening, the consequences of its aftermath are going to leave this booming economic hub permanently sore. And with the way things are going, I’m afraid this is just the beginning of worse things.
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) people will visit a construction site they would deem unsafe, only to be confronted with incontrovertible paperwork that would make them regret ever making the trip. I don’t know the extent of collaboration among state agencies mandated to regulate these sort of activities. No surprise allegations of corruption are rife in this sector.
The rain that caused the disaster of humanitarian proportion, if you carefully assess the damage done, lasted just under three hours. I saw communities that have never been affected, regardless of the volume and duration of the rain, inundated. Some residents had to spend the entirety of that night having to scoop water from their homes. While a few homes couldn’t stand the rain, the central business district recorded huge losees of valuable merchandise.
On that fateful night, I was on a commercial motorbike heading home, the volume of water I saw was unprecedented – we almost swam to get to the other side. As I waited for the rain to cease, I was desperately putting calls across to my family back home to know how they were holding out – we survived the water by a wisker. I saw homes barely standing after being submerged by the merciless waters – no wonder a few of them collapsed by daybreak.
