As seen in videos posted online, homes and roads were flooded across the Greater Banjul area following heavy rains from Friday night through Sunday morning.
Reports online monitored show that the Vice President, Alieu Badara Joof, accompanied by the minister of infrastructure, Ebrima Sillah, mayor Talib Bensouda of the Kanifing Municipality (KM), and the head of the national disaster management agency, Sanna Dahaba, among other government officials, was out on Sunday morning in the KM area visiting the affected communities and infrastructure.
Regarding affected vital national infrastructure, one online source reported to TAT the collapse of the crucial Kotu bridge, which links the Traffic Lights to the hotel’s area from Kotu, Kololi, Bijilo, and settlements beyond. This development on the strategic highway will disrupt traffic in the area.
PC: Alagie Manka
Another online report is about the Police High Command deploying the police force to join the national response to assist disaster victims.
This year’s rains were expected to start early this year. Based on our dairy entry, the first rains in Banjul and its environs came on Thursday, 26 May, followed by another rainfall on Friday night, 27 May, when it rained from around 8 pm to around midnight.
The national Met Office called the Department of Water Resources (DWR) in the Gambia had forecast that this year’s seasonal rainfall would be “above normal” and was expected to begin in June and end around October.
The DWR produces the Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) annually, which is the outlook of rainfall patterns in the country for July-August-September (JAS).
