What is this world coming to? - The heavy rains on 15 August have brought flash floods and mud slides to Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone. Mud gushing down together with heavy rain has torn the heart of the capital of this little known country in West Africa. 400 people have been confirmed dead and 600 are still missing after mudslides and flooding which devastated most of Freetown. The city is overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster and it has been said that it is a race against time to find survivors.
This reminds me of similar disaster which took place a couple of years ago in Madeira. The heavy rains there had brought flash floods and mud slides to this beautiful island. Mud gushing down from the mountain had torn the heart of Funchal, the capital of this island, and this magnet for the tourists turned into ruins. The tsunamis, earthquakes, mudslides and floods are Mother Nature’s cry for help in retaliation to the flogging we humans subject her to. I would like to reiterate here what I have said before in this column – stop belching out poisonous gases in the atmosphere or else our posterity will have no earth to live on.
It is time for governments to do more to protect the environment. This could be achieved by reducing global warming and conserving an ecological balance by avoiding the depletion of natural resources like trees and forests – by creating sustainability.
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
