As the rainy season endures, several communities, including Johnsonville, Soul Clinic, Du-Port Road, Doe Community, Clara Town, Pipeline, and so on, have began to experience uncontrollable flooding situations.
With a few months remaining for rainfall, Montserrado County and other areas are expected to experience more woeful livelihood due to overflooding. Two-thirds or 70% of the city’s population of approximately 1.5 million people live in environmentally subtle wetlands or swamps, according to the World Bank.
As the report unfolds, residents of Montserrado County’s district #4 have called on the National Disaster Management, humanitarian organizations and Representative Michael M. Thomas to come to their aid before they face starvation. The residents stated that floods have taken over their houses, destroying property and forcibly dislodging them since the rainy season started.
“We don’t know what to do because the water wet our clothes, mattresses, documents. When the water surrounds and enters our houses, it lasts for hours before it gets dry, causing our children to be hungry—because we go out and hustle for food before cooking,” several flood victims said with tear-dimmed eyes.
For district #4, Representative Thomas revealed that 18 out of 34 communities face the flooding wrath, citing constraint it is causing for his people. He said that he provided early assistance, but called on the National Disaster Management to buttress his effort as the flooding is on the rampage.
Residents of F-Sham community called on Representative Thomas and the Ministry of Public Works to open their drainages. In addition, the flood victims alleged that Andrew’s fence is the source of their homes being flooded because it is constructed on the waterway.
“We call on Representative Thomas to come, along with Public Work Minister, to destroy houses built on allays and compel Andrew to open his fence for the free flow of water,” flood victims of district #4 said.
The flood has changed people’s dwelling places as it has affected houses built with mud and caused them to crack. The water passes through people’s windows, emerges from under the floor and floods their homes.
Meanwhile, the Liberian government has cautioned Liberians nationwide, especially swamp inhabitants, to put their houses in order as it foresees worse flooding this year.
However, government is also blamed for the heavy flooding in Liberia because it fails to implement the zoning law, which prevents citizens from building on allays, waterway, and so on. In the same manner, citizens themselves willfully construct their domiciles on waterways and block drainages with garbage, a situation that promotes stark flooding.
As severe flooding takes over Montserrado County and its environs, residents of Doe community, Clara Town, Soul Clinic and other parts of Liberia have sounded a clarion call to the Ministry of Public Works: begin opening allays and drainages before they get drown in July, August and September, which they believe rain cats and dogs. Not only that: they also called on the Liberia National Police to start midnight patrol, citing criminals’ activities on the rise in their communities.
“We call on government through the National Disaster Management, non-government organizations, churches and our representatives to buy us zinc bundles, mattresses, bags of rice and relocate us because we are expecting more heavy rainfall,” citizens from flood-affected communities stated.
On June 28, 2024, the Liberia Coast Guard rescued residents of Johnsonville-Kpelleh Town from weighty flood, which nearly turned fatal.
