About a month ago, the chairman of the Village Development Committee of Mbollet-Ba Village, Mr Mamadou Jallow called on the Councillor of that part of Lower Niumi, Mrs Michel Mendy to bring to her notice a serious problem of erosion which is almost eating into the main road between Mbollet-Ba and Kanuma.
As a result of sand mining in the area, the water has been digging into the path leading to the main road which is the international highway leading to Senegal. The cutting off of this road by erosion will mean untold suffering for the people of the area and of course a huge economic loss for the country.
The Councillor when she was informed was prompt to call on officials of the National Road Authority (NRA) to notify them of the impending problem and sought solutions from them. The officials of NRA promised to dispatch a team to visit the area for assessment and further action.
Since then, nothing tangible has been observed by the villagers who continue to worry about the issue as they will be the ones to bear the brunt of the difficulties this might engender in the event of the road being cut-off. Last week, this information was passed on the Executive of Niumi Hands (An apolitical association which aims to improve the lot of the people of Lower Niumi) to take up the matter.
As expected, the President of Niumi Hands, Mrs Haddijatou Bah immediately called the National Assembly Member for Lower Niumi, Tamsir Cham and explained the situation to him. The National Assembly Member promptly called the officials of the National Road Authority and explained that something needs to be done urgently to avert a serious catastrophe in the area.
It is a well-known fact that communication plays a very crucial role in development. It is the road that farmers (majority of the people of Niumi are farmers) use to transport their produce in order to reach the market and sell whatever they have so as to have funds for survival. Businessmen/women rely on good road network to do business from which they feed their families and contribute to the development of the country. Teachers and students use the roads to reach school so that they can have an education.
When people fall sick they use the roads to reach hospital for treatment. Women and children use the roads to go to clinics for treatment and checkups. Pregnant women rely on the good roads to reach hospital on time in order to have safe delivery of their babies.
Thus, the importance of roads cannot be overemphasised and therefore the government through the National Road Authority should take immediate steps to solve this problem before it reaches disaster level. If the NRA does the needful, there will be no need to later call on the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) as that is what will happen if nothing is done now.
A stitch in time saves nine.
