By Mabinty M. Kamara
The village headwoman of Regent has expressed concern over the state of environmental degradation in and around the community and the apparent lack of concern exhibited by the government.
Mrs Elenorah Jokomie Metzger said the SLPP-led administration has failed to keep the pace in environmental protection in their community, as was done by its predecessor APC-led administration.
The headwoman was speaking at a meeting at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday. The meeting was meant for the Regent community people to channel their concerns over the trend of degradation of their environment. They were also expecting to get feedback from various sites visits to the area made by relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) over the last four months.
Regent was the scene of one of the deadliest natural disasters in Sierra Leone’s history – the 2017 mudslide and flooding disaster that claimed about 1000 lives. The incident was blamed on the unregulated activities of people.
Located in the Western Area Rural, the area is also home to one of the last remaining forests in the country, part of which falls under the protection of the National Protected Area Authority (NPAA).
Recently, concerns over a recurrence of a similar disaster in the area heightened, attracting the attention of the relevant MDAs. Several visits have been conducted between May and August this year by officials from NPAA, Ministry of Lands, Office of National Security (ONS) and the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA), as part of efforts to ensure that the area is protected and that people live in authorized areas.
A copy of a letter written by EPA and addressed to all these MDAs, indicate that Tuesday’s meeting had been planned for over a week. Yet none of them attended the meeting, which left the Regent community delegation disappointed.
The concerns of the community’s leaders include erection of buildings on the right of way. They are also notably concerned about the building of structures in the main Regent motor park and in nearby swamps, which they say has led to the cutting down of most of the trees that were meant to protect the area. This, the villagers added, has led to recurrent flooding.
Elenorah said that the previous administration had stopped people from constructing anything in these areas.
“But the moment this government came to power, people started erecting (structures) in those areas and I have done my very best to report the issue to the relevant authorities for actions, although nothing has been done about that,” she said in an interview after the meeting.
The Regent headwoman made reference to a fuel station located near the village cemetery, where she said construction work was halted by the previous administration, only to resume when the current administration took office.
According to her, the refusal of the relevant agencies to present a report or make a statement on the issue suggested that they might have a hand in the illegal destructive human activities going on in her community. She noted that most of the people who build in these places have documents in their possession, despite a promise by the Land Minister, Dr Dennise Sandi, not to allow any construction work in that area.
Elenorah also lamented the fact that there has been no statement from the government on the current state of affairs.
“If anything happens in that community, I will say that the village was destroyed by the government,” she said.
The meeting held in a conference room of the EPA was chaired by its Deputy Director of Field Operations and Extension, Sulaiman Tarawalie, who noted that although the particular area of concern for the community is not covered by the NPAA, it has environmental implications which may get serious if not treated “with the outmost seriousness it deserves.”
This is why, he added, they would have loved to have the relevant agencies to be present for the deliberation and to discuss possible solutions before things get out of hands.
© 2019 Politico Online
