July 28, 2015 By Ibrahim Tarawallie
Paramount Chief of Sengbe Chiefdom in the Koinadugu District has highlighted some of the pressing challenges affecting the development of his district, citing the lack of health centres, non-availability of electricity and food insecurity.
Hon. PC Alie Balasama Marah told Concord Times that even though 85% of his people’s income was through farming, yet there was food insecurity in the district. He lamented the poor road network, which makes it difficult for people to take their goods to the market for sale to customers.
He called on the government to put premium on increasing healthcare delivery services by making available more health centres so as to save the lives of particularly women and children in the district.
“We want the government to increase on healthcare delivery services by providing us with more health centres. We want to save the lives of particularly our women and children,” he said.
According to him, the non-availability of electricity was costing business people a lot to run their generators and to make ends meet.
In spite of these challenges, PC Marah is confident that the district has lots of tourism potentials that will help generate a lot of revenue for the government and people of Sierra Leone.
“I am optimistic that if government and the private sector would invest in Koinadugu’s tourism sector, greater transformation will come to the district,” he stated and added that they can boast of a lot of touristic sites, citing the Loma Mountain, Abetia Mountain, Lake Sonfor – which is one of the best in Africa with natural ship pole, and Bintumani Mountain, as well as wildlife like elephants, bush cows and beautiful forest areas.
He described the current security situation in his chiefdom as “calm and peaceful”, noting that his chiefdom was one of the most peaceful in the country with a very low crime rate.
With regards the Ebola outbreak in the country, Hon. PC Marah, who is representing his colleague paramount chiefs in Parliament, said the district has gone for nearly a hundred days without recording a single case of Ebola, attributing such achievement to the strategies put in place by the district, chiefdom, section and village task forces.
“We have been very harsh with our response to the Ebola outbreak, which has made us to succeed in driving away the deadly virus,” he stated.