By: Moses M. Tokpah
Liberia-The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has threatened massive demolition of structures erected in waterways and slum communities blamed on waves of dangerous flooding affecting citizens during rainy season.
But while the pronouncement is welcoming considering the embarrassment and victimization flooding has caused and continues to cause, not Liberians would believe and take the suck ukase serious unless executed, because it is not the first time government or the Ministry of Public Works and related agencies of government has promised to demolish structures in water ways, but to no avail.
NDMA Executive Director, Ansu V.S Dulleh, Sr., who gave the notice said illegal slum dwellers are building in the drainages and blocking water, thus causing flood everywhere while rivers are overflowing their banks due to climate change.
Director Dulleh revealed that people in Bo Water-Side are no longer going to schools and their places of worship as a result of flooding in the area, vowing that the government will not allow people in slum communities to always expect handouts or supplies in food and cash every rainy season.
“The government has said it repeatedly that it will not continue to be giving aid to people who deliberately believe that they are entitle to it,” he said in a rather angry tone.
“You cannot build in the swamp community, in swamp land, in the water way and you believe that government will be coming for you all the time to give you things, no!” he further indicated.
“What the government is doing now is an emergency intervention. I assure you that the government will demolish houses in the water ways, open drainages, and move community dwellers from one community to another not at its expense,” the NDMA boss pointed out.
He said the appropriate publicity will be carried out very soon through awareness and radio jingles.
Mr. Dulleh said the government does not have the luxury of money to be given to people who deliberately constructed their homes in the water ways.
At the same time, NDMA and its partner have started providing a US$1.5million emergency support through a cash transfer for food assistance to about 28,000 victims of the June 28, 2024 flood that affected about forty-eighty thousand Liberians.
Executive Director Dulleh said the amount is provided by the World Food Program (WFP) through the United Nations (UN) in response to a call made by the UN to all of its Agencies to come to the aid of the Liberian people.
According to him, about five thousand two hundred households constituting twenty-eight thousand persons have now started to receive a cash transfer of US$45 for the period of four months to purchase food and medication that will enable them to redefine their dignity.
He also stated that the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) is also providing water guide for flood victims, pointing out that the organization cannot cover all the 48 thousand victims.
The US$500,000 provided by the Red Cross, he said, will go to those who will not be captured by the WFP while the GOL aid system will cover another area.
In a related development, the NDMA has also announced that it has procured more than 300 bundles of zinc to be distributed to wind, storm and fire victims in the country.
For their parts, three of the beneficiaries have admitted to receiving the US$45 cash transfer thus thanking the NDMA and its partners for the intervention.
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