Drivers, traders and workers at Tipper Garage, Bakoteh, and its environs, were quite flabbergasted by flood waters that took over their work place and residential areas recently, leaving them in a state of utter anxiety.
According to Malang Kanteh, a worker at the Bakoteh Tipper Garage, the rain started at about 4am that morning when residents and tipper owners were n their slumber. Some like Malang Kanteh were in tears; he says, “this area has always flooded and our business come to a stand still till after the water dries up slowly. This time our vehicles are either partially or wholly submerged. After the whole sad episode, our vehicles would have to undergo thorough mechanical check up before they work again, because parts of engines or the whole engine were submerged in water, and very unhealthy water for that matter.”
People were seen struggling to remove parts that they needed as the water kept overflowing. Around some houses, children could be seen struggling to look for safety as their parents moved out their belongings to a safe place.
People at the Tipper Garage said that proper work was needed on the drainage system. They said much of the water flowed down from Sukuta along informal waterways and gutted stretches of roads. “Some of the flow was apparently blocked by mountains of garbage dumps piled indiscriminately at different sites of the road,” Malang said.
It could be recalled that the same flood waters had hit Lamin, Abuko, and vicinities TK Motors, GTTI and Kotu Quarry recently. Many residents now fear to return to their homes at Tipper Garage.
Meanwhile in a related development it is reported that heavy rains have made many people in Dakar, Thies and Ziguinchor to flee their homeless.