Engineers at mount sugarloaf mudslide epicenter has called on government, and other development partners to come into their aid and assist them with more heavy machineries that will help dig out more copses at the site.
Engineer M.S Kemokai explained that they don’t have the right equipment to carry on with the work, and that excavators are only helping “but It’s not the right machinery to do the work.”
He pleaded to the authorities to give them heavy machinery that will help dig out more corpses, adding that they still believe that there are more bodies underneath the rocks and with the right machinery they can probably exhume the hidden corpses.
“Our greatest fear is that these corpses have started decomposing and we cannot touch them in the next few days to come because they can pose serious health hazard to us,” he maintained.
Engineer Kemokai stated that the landslide cannot only be associated with natural disaster “but it’s also entails human causes,” adding that over the years the vegetative cover that covered the land has been removed.
He said they observed that the hill cut from the bottom and caved in, and that the residence at the area informed them that there was a serious convulsion at the time of the incident.
He advised that people should be listening to advises given by experts and stop building in disaster prone areas, and that they have also discovered that there is another crackdown at the top of the hill that has open 10 inches wide.
On the early hours of 14th August 2017, Sierra Leone faced a heart rendering mudslide disaster that claimed the lives of over 300 people, which cannot be unconnected to the constant deforestation of reserved forest areas in the country.
In the last five years, Sierra Leone has faced numerous tragedies ranging from Ebola epidemic, flooding, fire incidents and mudslide disaster.
The Government of Sierra Leone has declared a seven days mourning for the victims and allowed the family of victims to bury their love ones, and that “the government will also be giving dignified burial to the unidentified corpses.”
