THE WEST POINT community located directly on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean is being gradually wiped away by erosion.
THE DENSELY POPULATED slum community which is hosting thousands of people continues to reduce in size as the ocean moves towards Monrovia, eating up the entire community.
OVER THE LAST two to three years, West Point has reduced drastically in size as a consequence of seasonal erosion disaster, sweeping houses and at same time resulting to deaths.
THE GOVERNMENT OF Liberia has over time expressed willingness to relocate the people of the West Point community to another place in Brewerville but how far these arrangements have gone remain scanty.
ACCORDING TO SOME, several residents of the community are refusing to be relocated despite the danger inching on them daily with the sea fighting for control of the land.
AT LEAST THERE has been more than four major erosion disasters from 2015 to current with the latest taking place Saturday night to Sunday morning where the sea washed away over 125 houses.
THE RECENT FLOOD also left over 6,000 people without homes many of whom are now in search of dwelling places.
REV. DEMORE W. MOORE, West Point Chairman of the Disaster Victims Association, rightly expressed that politicians are not providing any assistance to those affected by the flood, saying it is only during the search for votes that these politicians show their faces seeking votes.
“NOBODY IS COMING to us now; even those running in our district are not coming to us. We are the electorates and the commoners who you are supposed to be representing, and people homes and belongings were washed away while they were selling in the market, and they do not even have food to eat, and we are not seeing them. So this is the time for presidential aspirants to come in now, if they do not come now, we do not want to see them anymore. Even our children who are now 18 and above and are supposed to be voting and they are not in school, do you think they will vote for you when you do not see to it that they go to school?”, Rev. Moore.
TRUE TO WHAT REV. MOORE SAID, during elections West Point is normally a place of vigorous campaigning because of its vote rich capacity but the community lacks basic necessities and the living conditions of residents quite unimaginable.
THE LOOMING DISASTER in West Point is so glaring that the failure of the government to ensure that these people are relocated is setting the stage where thousands of people are living dangerously, not knowing what will happen to them in the next hours or days ahead.
WHY IT IS A FACT that some of the residents of West Point are satisfied living in such a slum community because it is where they have lived for years, the danger lurking is so grave to allow these people to have their will.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALL THE power within its reach to relocate the people of West Point by using Eminent domain to ensure that the people are removed for their own safety and relocated to avoid deaths and further destruction.
YET STILL THE GOVERNMENT can use condemnation process where it can declare that the West Point land is needed for another use rather than residential place.
SITTING SUPINELY AND watching a danger hanging over thousands of people is something of serious concern and the government is under all obligations to protect these people by relocating them as quickly as possible.
WEST POINT IS CERTAINLY a disaster in waiting and all precautions should be taken on a timely basis to prevent the loss of lives and properties.
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