By Saio Marrah
The annual Hazards Calendar by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), has indicated that the country is moving from flooding to windstorm season.
This was revealed during a PowerPoint presentation by the Director of Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation of NDMA, Abubakarr Bangura, at the last government weekly press briefing.
He also pointed out that the northern city of Makeni has already suffered a windstorm that destroyed a good number of homes, based on a report they received on the 31st of August, this year. He said the annual calendar guides them as an agency on what to expect.
Bangura, therefore, called on the public to be on alert for possible windstorms as the country is in the month of September.
He said the 2022 risk reduction and preparedness of the agency focus on what he called “anticipatory actions on critical national infrastructures like the Guma Valley Water Dam, Fuel Depots, Bumbuna Hydro, among others, which he said are very critical to not just the national economy but the lives of citizens as well.
On other risk reduction and preparedness, he talked about strengthening early warning systems using technology, capacitating volunteers, and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in primary and secondary schools.
The establishment and operationalization of chiefdom disaster management committees are among the other risk reduction and preparedness by the agency.
He said for the early warning system, they will establish what he called “Kongosa tool” designed to send text or voice messages to communities in an event where a community is faced with imminent flooding so that they can alert people to move from their settlements early.
He said they will be working with volunteers that will register with the NDMA in actualising the tool.
According to Bangura, every volunteer registered with the agency is to report any risk and when the agency deemed it necessary, it will send text messages to the community people for them to leave.
The PowerPoint presentation also indicated that the NDMA has been halting dangerous construction work in urban areas that include excavation near a bridge at Morthaim on the Regent-Jui Road, the construction of an embankment in Angola Town, and a water catchment area in Grafton.
Bangura also pointed out that the disasters that occurred on the 28th of August this year affected 18 communities, with seven fatalities.
The Director of Communications at NDMA, Mohamed L. Bah, informed Politico that the agency has been advising people to avoid erecting their houses on open spaces where there are no trees that will stop a windstorm.
He said they mostly give such advice when they are out to supply building materials to windstorm-affected communities or encourage them to plant trees around the buildings so that it will divert the windstorm.
Bah also talked about how they have been encouraging the public on the culture of tree planting, which he said has a significant role to play especially against wind storms.
He also called on all and sundry to make sure they hire the most qualified people when erecting and roofing their houses so that they will be solid enough to withstand a windstorm.
According to the Public Relations and Head of Communication at the Sierra Leone Meteorological Agency (SLMET), Success I. S. Kamra, confirmed the agency’s 2022 policy statement indicating windstorms across the country, most likely this month.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online
