By Mohamed T Massaquoi
24 communities in five chiefdoms in the southern district of Pujehun have been washed away by floods.
57 houses collapsed, while 50 others were seriously damaged according to a Red Cross official in the district.
The focal person for disaster management in Pujehun for the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, Ibrahim Pemagbi, said the floods left 1,326 people displaced.
Pemagbi said his organisation had observed that for the last five years, riverine areas in the district had experienced floods at this time of the year.
He said their best efforts to persuade the people to move into safer areas had always fallen on deaf ears, and pleaded with the people to move out quickly before the rainy season reached its peak.
One of those affected by the floods, Munda Mattia of Toesor village in the Kpanga Kabonde chiefdom said "the floods destroyed our livestock and all our livelihood in fact". He called on government and other development partners to come to their aid.
The ONS officer in Pujehun district, Samuel Tarawally said a report would be forwarded to headquarters in Freetown for action after consultations with other partners. He said they would continue to encourage the people to re-locate and warned them against any high expectations of what the government or other agencies could do to provide some relief to them.
The deputy chairman for Pujehun district council, Khalilu Fofana told Politico that they were working closely with the disaster management committee headed by the ONS to help the people. He said that as far as providing immediate relief to the people was concerned, the council was assessing the situation and would do whatever it could to help, despite their enormous involvement in the fight against Ebola.
The affected chiefdoms are Kpanga Kabonde, Barrie, Kpaka, Mano Sakrim and YKK.
(C) Politico 12/08/14
