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Jambanjelly threatens legal action against gov’t

Jul 21, 2020, 10:39 AM | Article By: By Yusupha Jobe

The community of Jambanjelly has blamed the government of President Adama Barrow for what it alleged as poor drainage construction on the newly commissioned Sukuta-Jabang road.

This comes in the wake of a heavy downpour which caused flooding and destroyed individual household properties last week.

They vowed to take legal action against the government over the dire situation.

The 13.1 kilometer road project of the former government was completed in the current regime and has since received a series of criticism over its poorly constructed drainage system.

Many people who are affected by flooding due to the poor construction of the drainage told The Point in an interview that the frequent flooding is costing them a lot.

The VDC spokesperson Pa Abdou Samba, said the community of Jambanjelly is now ready to protest and take legal action against the government, adding that a series of meetings were held with GAMWORKS and the Ministry of Works regarding the condition of the poorly constructed drainage.

“We are now ready to take any action against the government, especially the Works Ministry and GAMWORKS whom we have been engaging for the past three years by writing to them letters to solve the flood problem.

I personally have informed the road engineers of the community’s normal water channel when they were constructing the drainage but all of those waterways were later blocked,” he affirmed.

Saikou Colley said: “We have never experienced such kinds of flooding in the community. The only time this has happened was the past years when the road was under construction.”

“I could not even sleep with my family as all of my household properties were flooded after part of my house was brought down by the flood,” he stated.

Baba Touray, also a flood victim, said the entire food stuffs of his household including clothes were destroyed by last Friday’s rain which caused flooding. He revealed that he had no other option but to rely on individual assistance for his family.

He argued that such destruction caused by rain had never happened in their community since its inception, thus blaming the poor construction of the drainage.

“I have never seen such destruction in the village even compared to those days when we experienced much more downpour.”

“This has never happened in this community. The only thing I can say is causing this flooding is the poorly constructed drainage facility and we have complained against it but to no avail,” he said.