Nine (9) bodies out of the fifteen (15) that were buried under ground up at Saki, Goilala District have being recovered by the team on the sixth day of the search.
That’s from the local MP for Goilala William Samb in a joint press conference on Sunday.
Mr Samb also stated that they were fortunate enough to deliver seven (7) to the respected villages for a decent burial.
“The Governor for Central, our Provincial Disaster Team and I are working very closely to ensure we are putting all resources available to ensure we recover our loved ones.”
“Due to the heavy downpour, it has been difficult to access the terrain and to provide the basic equipment that are also needed to make the job easier but Mr Samb said they will still be able to have these items transported.”
“We have supplied water pumping facilities, chainsaws, hand gloves, masks and other basic tools and necessary equipment like food to support our local men who are on the ground working tirelessly to retrieve the remaining bodies.”
He thanked the Governor for Central Province, Robert Agarobe and the Provincial Health Authority for Central Province, Mr Pana Rim for being very helpful to the people of Saki during the unfortunate disaster that struck before the New Year.
Goilala MP William Samb, Central Governor Mr Robert Agarobe and the Provincial Disease Control Officer, Mr Pana Rim will be flying over to the site on Tuesday to do a final assessment and to see the outcome of the search and its progress and will provide updates when they return.
They will also speak to the villages there about safety and the way forward after the tragic disaster.
“We are also very thankful to those people who have been calling since day one of the disaster trying to assist.”
“After a thorough discussion, a Coordination Centre will be established hopefully by tomorrow and those that are willing and interested to assist in cash and kind can visit us there.”
Central Governor, Robert Agarobe has said that their priority right now is to retrieve the rest of the bodies and once it is done they will start looking at the rehabilitation part of it which he thinks is another big exercise plus the cleaning up of the area.
“There is still a lot of debris and a lot of big logs that were washed down and whether we like it or not, our people will still go down there to continue their alluvial mining and it is very hard to regulate out there especially in the middle of nowhere and the best thing we can do is tidy up and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He further added that it is a very difficult area and when you are mining, you are disturbing the soil and anything is bound to happen again so the next thing to do is conduct awareness to the locals there on the dangers of mining.