Over 400 people are dead, 600
unaccounted for and over 2000 rendered homeless. This worrying statistics is as
a result of a rainfall which triggered a flood and mudslide in Sierra Leone on
Monday, August 14, 2017. A hillside in
the Regent area on the outskirts of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone
collapsed after a rainfall. A portion of Sugar Loaf Mountain also collapsed. The
mudslide buried some people alive, and houses too. The flood had some houses
going under water. The unfortunate event threw people of that country into
mourning. Whole families were wiped out. Some who have lost wives, children and
siblings narrate their stories amidst sobbing. Properties have been destroyed
and lost. Properties that took people their lifetime to gather and build up.
Businesses have been lost. The President of that country, President Ernest Bai Koroma
has called for 7 days of mourning starting from Wednesday, August 15, 2017. I think the dead were given 21 day gun
salute. Clearly this is an unpalatable time for the people of Sierra Leone in
particular and the world at large.
Planet Earth has been so designed, by
nature, as to handle its constituents, its nonhuman constituents, in a way that
should avoid what is happening in Sierra Leone for example. Human constituents,
being the smartest of the constituents of planet Earth were designed to manage the
nonhuman constituents and in the right chemical balance. As the materiality of
humans is based and dependent on the nonhuman constituents, there is always the
need for equilibrium in the use and replacement of nonhuman constituents of
planet Earth. In other words I am talking about a sustainable management of
planet Earth. Water courses should be freely accessed by water. Water flowing
about in and out of basins ought not to be impeded. Land, for that matter
mountain slopes should have their vegetation intact.
Do the people of Sierra Leone (for
that matter earthlings) treat the environment in a manner so as to avoid the
disaster that happen on Monday, August 14, 2017? This is not to take away from
the fact that Sierra Leone, in part, is a tropical rain forest. Floods occur
annually during the rainy season of August and September.
The following are some of the manmade causes of the flood:
Erection of hillside settlements
Uprooting trees on hillsides thereby weakening soil stability
Cutting trees for firewood and charcoal
Poor drainage system
Unregulated settlements
The foregoing show the contributions of man which resulted in
the unfortunate disaster. Suppose the Sierra Leoneans (man) did not build in
waterway, would the houses be wiped away or buried in the wake of the disaster?
Suppose there were no buildings in the designated waterways wouldn’t the flood
flow freely into the sea without destruction of life and property? This is
just a small scale of the matter. The natural environment as a whole is experiencing imbalances
on an unprecedented scale all over the world. On a scale that might
require an intervention from without as man is not being quick enough on the
response.
The matter is simple. Let earthlings be law-abiding in matters
regarding the natural environment so as to ensure a harmonious dependence and
coexistence with nature. A sustainable
clean and balanced natural environment is ultimately a prerequisite for the
survival of, and sustenance of the different species on planet Earth, many of
whom have been lost already.
Comments
Post a Comment