Margibi County – Several residents including a visually impaired man of Karken Town and surrounding communities in Lower Marigibi County have benefited from donations of shelter materials from the Liberian National Red Cross Society (LNRCS).
Report by Willie N. Tokpak – [email protected]
The communities are flood-affected are liable to flooding during the rainy season.
In October 2017, flood reportedly devastated the town and six others, leaving many homes damaged.
According to residents, the community is usually cutoff from surrounding towns and villages during the rainy season.
On Friday, January 12, 2018, Red Cross, with support through the Japanese Grant recovery project, distributed 580 bags of cements and 600 bundles of zinc to 48 family heads in the area.
LNRCS says it’s important to deliver the needs of flood victims in Karken Town to enhance “response and recovery capacity”.
Edward Jojo Roberts, the Project Coordinator, said the distribution of the materials would help affected families reestablished their lives.
“The homes of some of the affected families were partially damaged while others were completely damaged during unprecedented flooding in recent years.”
“We remain committed to protecting the livelihoods and building the resilience of communities and people affected by the flood, working to mitigate the risks, promoting recovery and restoring their hope,” Mr. Roberts said.
According to Roberts, the distribution targeted victims who are most vulnerable at the moment.
He said a recent survey conducted by his team discovered that the continuous flooding situation in that part of Liberia has resulted from construction of structures within the waterways.
Roberts said homes built within the drainage channel should be relocated in order to create a smooth pathway for water.
“The creek is right back here and if it gets full during the rainy season, it extends to the town because there are houses constructed within the drainage system,” he said.
While that is yet to be done, he added that LNRCS response and recovery capacity project is working with communities to adapt an “early warning, early action measure for disaster prevention and response”.
He said Red Cross is committed to continuously identifying the needs of flood affected communities to respond appropriately.
Roberts, however, extolled the Japanese government for supporting the LNRCS to enhance response and recovery capacity for Liberia’s population affected by flood.
Liberia is said to be the only country in Africa to benefit from the Japan’s Supplementary Fund through the Red Cross.
Garway Neekah, a visually impaired man who was also a beneficiary of the supply, said the donation who was “timely and a move of restoring” his hope.
Since October 2017, after flood damaged his home, Mr. Neekah and his children had been living in a hut given to them by a neighbor, but the condition of the hut, according to him, is unfavorable for dwelling.
“Well since the water made my house to break down, I don’t get anywhere to go so some people who living here with me give me that area there to be in it and I don’t get any money to build new house.”
“I used to make small garden but since my eye problem started, I’m not making any garden again. My woman lay basket to catch fish and sell, sometimes she can burn coal and sell it before we eat,” Neekah said.
Neekah said the flood created frustration for his family but lauded the Red Cross for the distribution, which he said, would enable him reconstruct a new home.
“This place can be bad, when rain fall. Water can come in the house from under the ground because no floor and water can be coming through the roof because that palm thatch we can use,” he said.
Monday-ma Johnson, a female beneficiary who burst into tears when she received the materials, recalled how the flood led to the death of her spouse last October.
During the flood he contracted severe cold and later die, she said.
“My husband was very sick and there was no way to take him from the house because the water was all over the place, so he died,” she added.
Monday-ma called on Red Cross to collaborate with community leaders to address the frequent flood situation in the area.
According to Red Cross, the flood disaster response and recovery project is addressing the basic needs of over 10,000 affected people through the provision of shelter kits, mass chlorination of wells and hand pumps, rehabilitation of damaged hand pumps, construction of new water points, training of community water committees and the construction of family latrines among others.
A Red Cross survey indicates that Liberia is one of the wettest countries in Africa that has recorded floods in the last decade.
But floods in recent years, according to the study, were very unprecedented with June 2016 flood disaster affecting 15, 431 people from 49 communities in Margibi and Montserrado Counties.
The National Disaster Management Authority official reports states that both counties were badly hit leaving scores of families homeless and destroying their means of livelihood.
“Water sources were contaminated posing threats of water borne diseases, while gardens and agricultural field were affected by floods leaving crops, including vegetables and root crops damage,” the report said.