Sitting and facing her submerged house in sorrow, Haddy Sanneh now faces sleepless nights and days wondering where to have a house to live with her children. Madam Sanneh’s house was submerged almost two weeks ago after flood-waters swept away the foundation of the building, putting the entire house on the ground.
Clothes and debris are scattered all over as if the compound had been abandoned for years. The front side of the compound has a corrugated fence while the back is open facing a dumpsite the size of a football field. The dumpsite is few meters away from the house that was.
The submerged house is located deep in Kotu Quarry, a suburb of Serrekunda, Gambia’s commercial capital which is a distance of 15 minutes from the Bakoteh – Kotu Highway. And now many of those living around the area are worried whether their houses will remain if the rains continue to pour heavily.
Haddy Sanneh, who lives with her family barely subsisting on a daily basis wonders where she will get another bag of rice after the rains swept away their only bag of rice, oil and other food items they kept in the house.
Asked how she feels about the situation, Haddy is worried about her health status and calls on the support of the government, philanthropists and private, generous people to extend goodwill support to her and her family as soon as possible.
“We lost everything; we lost our bag of rice, onions and bottle of oil. Everything has been destroyed by the rainwater. We are left with nothing, nothing I mean we are back to zero”.
“When our house was submerging, we weren’t aware until my child called me and told me the house is flooding. Then we rushed out of the house with nothing but the clothes on our backs and gathered outside the house watching as the water poured in our house inundating us into paralysis,” Haddy Sanneh explained.
Madam Sanneh now lives with her family at a nearby nursery school where she was given two weeks to stay and now that schools are to resume on the 16th of September, she is worried about her housing situation without another option for accommodation.
“…I hardly ever sleep at night because I am constantly thinking about our accommodation issues,” explains Sanneh.
Meanwhile, a day after the flooding, she said some officials from the government came to her submerged house and took pictures and details, but since then, she has neither seen nor heard from them.
“We are asking for help from the government and philanthropists to help us,” she added.
Yama Sanneh, a neighbor of the victim also called on the support of the Gambian government and philanthropists to urgently come to the help of Madam Sanneh.
Mrs. Sanneh states, “We are all worried about Haddy’s situation, she is old now and she wouldn’t be able to pay rent for a house. We call on people to come to her aid and help. The school she is currently living with her family is just a temporary solution…”.
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