By Mabinty M. Kamara
Residents of the newly declared touristic site in Southern Sierra Leone Sulima have expressed fears over the devastating effects that this year’s rainy season might pose to their community this time round.
The township of Sulima in Pujehun district is flanked by both the sea and river attracting heavy waves along a fine beach area that attracted President Julius Maada Bio and the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs to identify the place as a touristic site.
However, this beauty has often had a devastating effect on the community especially in the rainy season. The most recent of such incident was on the 6th of May this year when a heavy storm ripped through the township leading to the destruction of several houses and leaving many people displaced and injured mostly from the fragments of flying zinc roof tops.
Speaking to Politico Bintu Jah a resident and a victim of the latest storm was worried over the situation which she said is always the case whenever the rainy season comes.
She said last year flooding occurred which left many people homeless and properties including stored food stuff destroyed.
“Here in Sulima the sea and the river are the problems we face because we get too much wind coming from them into the town. Our zincs on the roofs do not last longer than they should due to the evaporation of the salt in the sea and whenever heavy wind blows like the one that happened recently, they are easily blown away,” she said.
She added: “But when the incident occurred, security people came around with relief and medical services for the injured people. We don’t know if the government has anything to do to help us out of this situation but it is not easy for us, last year it was flooding and this is just the beginning of the season.”
With no death recorded Chief Shiaka L. Massaquoi of Sulima town told Politico that about 45 houses were affected by the recent storm with three completely destroyed.
Chief Massaquoi like Bintu was only hoping for God’s protection because he said the situation has not been favorable for them in previous rainy seasons.
“Every year we are like this in worries and troubles until the season passes by before we could get relief from our worries,” he said.
Politico Contacted the country’s Meteorological Agency to get a forecast for the rainy season and their preparedness to mitigate possible disasters but the Deputy Director of the Agency said they have already done a comprehensive forecast for the season which will be shared with the media early this week and subsequently the entire public.
Sierra Leone, as a whole, especially the capital Freetown has over the years been affected by the devastating effects of storms in the season leading to the loss of many lives and properties.
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