By Assan Bah
This medium has been following developments at the Jabang Estate for the past years as the Estate was affected by frequent floods during the 2022 rainy season, resulting in authorities taking steps to address the issues of flood in the Estate.
To curb the flooding problem, the stakeholders – including the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC), the Physical Planning Department of the Ministry of Lands, Local Government and Religious Affairs, the National Roads Authority (GRA), and the members of the Estate community met to design measures to ease the situation.
Aja Yama Ceesay, a resident of Daru-Busumbala who lost her 13-year-old boy in the ongoing works at the said estate, said after 4pm on Sunday the 29th of October, 2023 her son told her that he was going to his friend’s house to play, but they were called after 5pm and informed that her son died in the ponds.
She said she was told by eyewitnesses that her son went to the ponds alone, adding “and eyewitnesses informed us that he went into the pond, but according to them, he was stuck in the pond for about 30 minutes and when he was taken out, they found that he was dead”.
Foroyaa’s investigation revealed that there are over five places dug for the planned ponds construction, and children are sometimes found swimming or fishing in these ponds.
“Immediately we were informed of the incident. The Police and officials from the Fire and Rescue Service, attached to Latriya were called, thinking that he was still alive. However, when the police took him out of the pond, he was already dead.”
To her dismay, Mrs Ceesay said since the incident occurred, the family of the deceased did not see any government official in their home to extend their condolence for the loss of their son as they (the authorities) are partly responsible for his death.
She called on the government to hammer out solutions to the open ponds to prevent such things from happening again.
“The government should devise mechanisms to ensure that children are well protected from such calamities which are mainly caused by negligence. Since the ponds are placed on open places, they should be fenced or even be guarded by security personnel to avoid children going into them,” she suggested.
Mrs Ceesay informed Foroyaa that they were not the first family to lose their child in those ponds.
“I heard that our child was the third or fourth child to lose his live in those terrible ponds,” she explained, recounting the incidents that occurred last year.
According to her, this year they registered almost three cases in the area, one of which was from Labacokere [a nearby village to Jabang], Jabang and their son from Daru – Busubala.
“This project was supposed to be a project which will help the people of Jabang to address the issue of flooding in the area, but it has turned out to be a graveyard for the children of both Jabang and satellite villages. The saddest part is, no one knows the number of children that will lose their lives here as the problem remains unaddressed by authorities,” said Ceesay.
She further said: “The authorities should look for solutions to facilitate the flow of water in these ponds because since the death of my son, I think the water is increasing and not reducing.”
She expressed concern over the ‘unending project’ saying, “now that I and some of my colleagues have lost our loved ones to these ponds, I am sure others will not be comfortable. The government should finish the construction of the ponds, if not they will continue to claim the lives of many innocent children.”
Asked if his office was aware of any reports of drowning at the Jabang Estate, Mr Sanna Dahaba, the Executive Director of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), said he was away and could not “confirm neither deny, but I will consult my staff to get the right information”.
When asked if he was aware that it was alleged that two or three children drowned in the ponds at the estate, he said, “that is never true.”
Speaking with a senior member of Jabang Estate Development Committee, this medium learned that the project will cost a total of Nineteen Million Dalasi (19 million). He stated that the government was expected to contribute Ten Million, and Social Security Nine Million Dalasi (9 million). He clarified that the SSHFC had already paid Nine Million Dalasi, but added that the government is yet to pay its part of the contribution.
He said the aforementioned stakeholders told them they have a plan to tackle flooding problems in the Estate.
“So, in the process of doing that, they came up with the idea that they will construct ponds or water holes.
“They have a very nice plan, well-documented, well-designed. If they actually had implemented the plan on paper, children and animals will not drown into the ponds. The cost of the project and what we are currently seeing is quite different,” he disclosed.
“They even told us that if they are ready, the ponds can be used as a place for leisure where people can sit around and if possible, it will serve as fish ponds to serve as an income generating venture for the community which is indeed a fine idea.
He however, said, “They came and dug those things (Ponds) and left it like that. The project is not well supervised. They left it here, but we have been telling them this is not what we agreed on, but they kept saying, ‘Oh! We will do it. Oh! We will do it.’ With all the committees they have formed, they did not work towards these things, it is just empty promises that they keep telling us, but they have still not done anything close to what was agreed,” said the Insider.
He further said they have identified the risks associated with the open ponds, but said nothing has been done about their complaints.
“It is quite disappointing that the government will create structures that would cost the lives of human beings which is unacceptable. Imagine you lose your child because of ignorance or somebody’s inability to perform his or her duties and poor output of their roles.”
According to our sources, there was a time they confronted the contractor, but he told them that the government was not coming, “because the government also has a responsibility to fulfill certain things after the construction of the ponds, to create certain avenues”, but according to the contractor, the government is not doing their part as expected.
He said the idea of the project was to facilitate the flow of water in the area, but said what they are seeing is quite different, adding the authorities should have created canals where the water will pass through to the other side but they have not done that, alleging: ‘They just fixed a few things here and there and that has caused the loss of children’s lives which is unacceptable.’
The source told this medium that they used to actively stop children from going into the ponds. He said children are usually seen swimming in the ponds because they [the ponds] are made in a way that it can be easily accessed by the children.
“Parents cannot be there staring at their children for 24 hours, and as a result children will go there because people go to work and other places. And this water can cause some infections such as skin diseases and even schistosomiasis. “As a community we are really disappointed with the way the government agencies are handling the project because it is not being handled very well.
The Social Security was contacted for comments, but they told this medium that the National Roads Authority (NRA) and the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) are the contractors and the coordinating institutions respectively.
As part of the stakeholders of the estate flood mitigation project, Mr Sanna Dahaba, the Executive Director of NDMA was asked what is responsible for the delay of the project, and he said the stakeholders with the engineers are currently working on ways aim at continuing the project and as he said the money is readily available.
Meanwhile, Mr Sulayman Sumareh Janneh, an official of the National Roads Authority (NRA) earlier this year, told this medium that the ongoing project at the estate is a quick intervention method to alleviate flooding in the area during the last rainy season.
Janneh, who doubles as the head of the NRA taskforce committee at the said estate, said what they did was to intervene in the quickest manner and as a result it has yielded great success because peoples’ houses have not flooded yet.
He further said this is one of the most effective and sustainable interventions they could do to alleviate the suffering of the people of Jabang from what they have been going through in recent years.
He said the project is at the second stage.
“People should understand that this is an ongoing process that requires close monitoring until we finally complete the entire construction of the proposed ponds and affiliated structures. It is working effectively for the intended purpose. The intended purpose is for the water to be held in identified places to reduce the pressure and allow it to move gradually, not running fast like it used to do, and causing havoc,” he added.
Janneh said, “it is a continuous process, as they will continue adjusting it and going there on a daily basis. We also have additional precautionary measures that we have already designed with the system we are working on now and the contractor is also in the picture and is working on it.”
Janneh was however, contacted for comments as to what is delaying the project as there has been little progress on the project since it started and he promised to respond in the near future as he cited a busy schedule at work. However, at the time of going to press, Mr Janneh was still unresponsive, Foroyaa had therefore given him and the NRA the benefit of the doubt to clear the air as to what went wrong on the said Jabang project and how soon they intend to solve the problem to save the lives of children in Jabang and satellite villages.
