By: Jankey Touray
Musa Yali Batchilly leader of Gambia Action Party sympathizing with the flood victims of 30th to 31st of July 2020 expressed his dismay in some government officials.
Speaking to the Fatu Network Mr. Batchilly said the flood is a Nation disaster, it is not about politics, and the people prefer preventive methods and cures.
He said the National Disaster Management Agency should have put in measures to prevent the flood before it’s coming, stressing that going round to people affected by the flood, he fears that some children might drown in the flooded water or be infected by dirty water where he saw children swimming in and other children might even drink those water during swimming.
He calls on the President to call for an emergency meeting with the vice president, NDMA, minister of works, minister of lands, and physical planning to find solutions to the problem at hand.
Demonstrating that some houses are also the causes of flood, as they are built on the runways for water, Batchilly says those houses need to be demolished and owners are compensated to prevent future floods.
He urges the government that if the contract for road construction is to be given, the contractor should have a blueprint of the drainage system and if they can not provide it let the contract not be given to them, also to those contractors that say they can do it and fail to do the drainage system should be taken to Janjanbureh prison.
Batchilly also recommends that the government to used the NDMA to build emergency homes in all the 53 constituencies in case situations like this emerge they can be evacuated and compensated on few, as the government can not compensate them with all damages, but with that victims can sustain and grow from there, affirming that the government has money and should do it.
He accuses some government officials they are not doing their work and all they do is eat and embezzled describing them as “Suluh Mbalkh” slippery people who fit themselves in every great situation and that the government should bring an independent team who will investigate the whole Lands Ministry and those who are not ready to work be dismissed.
He said it is sad for the people of eleven thousand two hundred and ninety-nine(11,299) square meters to suffer for fifty-seven (57) years of floods and urges political leaders to join hands with the government to support the flooded victims and learned to love each other, as this is a wake up called from Allah for people to learn and love one another.
