April 6, 2021
What is the future of the slum community after the devastating inferno rendering over one thousand households is a critical question for the government. The National Disaster Management Agency is leading the recovery dialogue that is underway involving state and non-state actors. It has meanwhile been observed that high level interministerial engagement will have to play out in this process, cognizance of the factor that there is hardly any ministry without a role to play in the process. Water and sanitation and hygiene, education, health, gender, environment, energy and power, lands and country planning are all supposed to have the individual policy actions and intervention in the future of the razed and beleaguered slum community that has created a national emergency Information provided by the National Disaster Management Agency shows that there is immense donations in food and nonfood items. Transitioning to what now becomes of the slum is what stakeholders are brainstorming on. To relocate or not to relocate? The question has to be confronted decisively even as it is conflict prone.To relocate the people to new location all amenties have to be factored. The flashflood incident at Motormeh witnessed the relocation of some of the victims, who rented their apartments and returned to Freetown claiming that there were limited economic opportunities at Mile 6. But is this a consideration to allow the people etched at the sea front to remain risk prone in perpetuity? Director of Disaster Management John Vandy Rogers has not skirt around the question but insists that the study of the World Bank on the status of the slums must serve as reference point. He is suggesting that soil texture test must be done of Susan Bay must be done to determine what type of structures must be built there if the option is to allow the people to stay on. But he cautions that there is always the risk of flash floods given that the trees that have be cut down from the mountain will always cause huge erosion of water that inevitably runs through the bay communities to empty in the seas and this brings in its wake disaster of grave proportion. Stone and sand mining that are rife are also considered as causative factors of the potential risks that are to be factored in planning the future of bay communities. Nobody died in the fire situation; no child is missing contrary to rumors. This is good news in the face of catastrophic and dire situation affecting over one thousand compatriots rendered homeless. The dialogues that are planned in charting a new future is bound to manage the concerns of the people, but ultimately the government and humanitarian in the engagement have to decide on what is the best option that stands the test of time and avert the recurrent human security and environmental compromise. This is not to paper over the actual cause of the fire incident.`