Finally,
the Greater Banjul Area and the Kanifing Municipality also have had their first
drop of this year’s rainy season. After
the last heat waves that hit the country the last couple of weeks, we were all
praying for rain and eventually god answered our prayers as the first rainfall
has touched the ground.
We
prayed for rainfall not just because of its coolness, but it is ordinarily
supposed to be a season of blessing because after all, there is no life without
water and almost no food in Gambia without our rain-dependent agriculture.
However,
with the increasing impact of climate change on the rainfall pattern, the rainy
season is now a period of torment in the country not because malaria and
diarrhoea are at peak during this period. It is tormenting in the Greater Banjul and Kanifing Municipality not
only to individual households but also to the general public general because of
the poor infrastructure and bad physical planning of our highways.
One
of the seemingly easiest ways to cope with the impacts of climate change is
adaption and that entails rising to the occasion by preparing our environment
and adjusting our infrastructures to cope with the changing circumstances of
our rainfall pattern.
Some
of the disasters and calamities related to the rainfall could be avoided if we,
as individual households, the community and the government, try to employ to
adaption measures.
Individual
households at places like Ebo Town, where the first rainfall of the year is
said to have caused havoc, could do little on their own. They need the intervention of the government
but the government is seemingly not doing enough to help tackle the frequent
flash flooding that characterise the community in recent years.
It
is not enough to let the communities know that they are settled on waterways,
but help with a possible relocation option with at least modest accommodation
to continue their lives.
Ebou
Town, like several other communities in similar situation, need permanent
solution to their annual predicament.
But
even aside from the communities, our during the rainy season, most of our
roads, the major highways like Westfield-Brikama Highway, Berthil Harding
Highway and Kairaba Avenue, are always immotorable because of their deplorable
situation – too many potholes and stagnant water every where. The road are always flooded and that makes it
difficult travelling around town.
Also,
the lack of a proper functioning drainage system has resulted to piles of
filthy mud setting along the roadsides, making daily life activities very
difficult for the residents and other business outlets along the street.
We
reiterate that every effort should be employed in putting our roads, and the
gutters, in a good state and finding a tangible and workable solution to the
rain-related predicaments of communities like Ebo Town. This process should start today. Now.
“If
the rain spoils our picnic, but saves a farmer’s crop, who are we to say it
shouldn’t rain?”
Tom
Barrett
