From us here at aljazeera you are up to date in about thirty minutes or so elizabeth will be here with news but coming up next here and there its people in power. These stand the differences. And the similarities of cultures across the world. Aljazeera. In august twenty seventh seeing a devastating landslide in sierra leone killed over a thousand people a terrible blow to a country that still bears the scars of the civil war and the abode of six initially free grains brought on by Climate Change was thought to be the coals but then other stories emerged of corruption greed and environment that. Weve been to last one stalk warnings of catastrophe were ignored. The past decade has seen a rise in the number of catastrophic weather events around the world. Be it freak storms or drives or unprecedented rainfall extreme weather is becoming the new normal a no where are the effects felt more keenly than in developing nations. From bangladesh to peru and sierra leone to the dior sea record breaking rains have triggered devastating floods and lethal landslides. Among them the landslide that struck sierra leone in august two thousand and seventeen it was one of the deadliest with over a thousand People Killed or missing. But was this disaster all it seems one more portent of the havoc that Climate Change will be sending our way. Or was it compounded by other more prosaic human failings. Weve been to investigate the root causes of the serio landslide. To ask what can be learned and what the future holds for this and other countries if those in power fail to act. In a. Good girl simple actions good story sky. Sports icon puts. More dollars. On the morning. Of aug fourteenth two thousand and seventeen after days of heavy rain the side of the Sugarloaf Mountain in region to sierra leone collapsed the avalanche of mud water and rock that followed destroyed three hundred homes and killed over a thousand. More divestiture. Is the maids. I dont remember even the wall when for a single day one thousand wound up people died in two minutes there was a big found. Plane coming down you know that goes on with us and it was easy to slip through your brain even the the ground by brits. What i mean if i mean anybody get me someone get me the ones. Six weeks later the rains have come to an end and people are resuming their lives. But not everyone thinks heavy rainfall alone calls the disaster. Not far from the site of the landslide in the hills around regent stunts the taku gamma chimpanzee sanctuary. For over twenty years tucker gamma has been a haven for chimps by habitat destruction and the illegal to trade. But for the past decade the centuries finder. Has been fighting a different one that has implications for people as well as wildlife. Always looking good. So when they come here we have to. Be having them back mentally and physically and will form them into a family and. So they have given a Second Chance at life and their slaves. Yes. The law is on the border of the western Area National park its a seventy square mile stretch of mountainous rainforest adjoining the capital founded more than a century ago the park is home to ninety percent of sierra leones biodiversity including while chimpanzees and numerous endangered species. It is this forest and its wildlife that bow and his team of forest rangers have been fighting to protect fi this line here there was a caterpillar that was trying to come in all the way and we stopped it at one point or people but then its like going to miss fire fighting. We move then after one two month the attempt again this is how they his looked historically and that is how they should be preserved for many reasons and we. Help protect this forest is going to come down one day and thats what happened there weve been warning about this landslide opal tension for Something Like big discussed like that for the last say ten fifteen years. For the collapse of the sugarloaf was triggered by rampant deforestation and illegal building. For over a decade he warned the government of the damage being done to the hills around free time he took his message to local radio and television and even planted trees in the area. In the last three times a documentary produced a decade ago appeared alongside local architects and urban planners calling on the government to control unplanned building and environmental damage around the city. With the war situation we had everything stopped for many many years suddenly there is this thursday Everyone Wants to build deeply want to come back to see the new industry left. So that is a huge. Demand for land as in the Building Code as rebuilt simply ignore the build a good job or do as regards to the some of the roads we obviously slide down the mountain government you learn slips its an environmental disaster into you in a few years you see over. The warnings were dire. But no one listened. Patrolling the bindery of the National Park today takes power and his team to the site of the landslide where one of their guard posts once stood. A year before the disaster it was burnt down by angry locals determined to build houses in the area. Mistaken the lawyer but make you feel see the only one here is you come here look at it what i see is not the top im imagining what is under and so many people perished here were actually standing on top of it was a basically because it was literally missile to be released like a lot of the of the people the problem was not cost here the problem was caused by the ground that you can see this landscape a lot of rock when you have this rock you have little soil in there and is the trees thats where the roots are spreading into these areas around the rocks and that is Holding Everything together and once you cut the tree basically the root system dice that means there is Nothing Holding these rocks again soil is already lose its becoming like dust and once you have the heavy downpours and its all based basically taking it away then the rocks are being exposed. Were playing games with people slice if you ask me really its going to hurt again it will hurt the. Architects millions scarboro and quinn journey alan return to freetown at the end of Syrian Civil War and find a city where the rule book could be in front at the window. Like they warned of the dangers the city faced. Truly remarkable what is happening. Just post a whole post war. Small area that opened up totally unplanned. Three hundred home. Were destroyed in the region planned slight. But the collapse of the hillside didnt just destroy the houses beneath us. He created a mudslide an avalanche of water earthen stone that swept downhill towards the sea. The houses that stood in its way were built in floodplains were close to water courses areas normally classed as high risk when i got to know it would i want to be with. You. Now maybe you did if you work around it or well being get away. With the family or die a. Little tin shack there has been built into the side of the hill and the earth is left exposed will rain come in will cause that slope to fail if you have houses like this it would all of them would just be going collaterally despite the disaster when in millions find the area around the landslide a hive of building activity. With laborers rushing to meet the demand for new houses this is that this selling is broken aggregates to whosoever will. Only police. So that to give the story from the riverbed here you can see that bridge is being eroded and this obviously are taking stones from out there that is going to collapse eventually through ignorance we were wrecking the landscape. Look the height. None of these houses should got been built in this vicinity a cult. Is a mishmash of houses placed on the hill it will be interesting to find out if any of this. Houses here and sharks have. A Building Permits but those we spoke to around the landslide site did have paperwork including conveyances site surveys and Building Permits all stumped and signed by the ministry of lands. Its very painful it brings heaviness in my heart to see that we do have people in so long who know what to do who would advise governments on how to proceed but even if that is ignored then then whats. The risk no silver bullets that would have prevented the regions landslide. Not everyone thinks of forest cover or damage to the landscape played such a Critical Role the landslide might have happened anyway but if the law had been upheld it would have been far less deadly the area around pretty towns sixty percent of the forest covered has been lost in the last four decades all borderlines the exact spot where it happened was actually densely forested which points to a differing different issue there the that the hills around free down odd relatively unstable and landslides a frequent arguments because what weve only seen of the people of the iceberg because if this unplanned development keeps happening the garneau see them are allied landslides becoming much more frequent theres going to be a lot more level loss of life. Sierra leone is ill equipped to deal with natural disasters on such a scale. Even with the help of the International Community the government has struggled to bring aid to those affected. Do you do still. You. Know we. Grieve. Well. As a few that is. The the process is. All the good we did. Even with this difficulty. Cyril you raise a. Plans to rehire as displaced people in new communities outside the city are costly and still in the early stages but what about prevention and enforcing the existing law. Six months after the disaster its business as usual a stones throw from the landslide site multistory highs are still going up wealthy and influential people live in the area and property prices are high id side gama a two story houses sprung up its inside the by entry of the National Park and the forest rangers had a to investigate. The. Nuclear. Code working with other companies. Say theres a document sure. Didnt hear their ideas go from the ministry of letters and in this did out gives authority to be able to. Do didnt work or. We dont have force to push them off says the documents the sign Building Permit means the guards are powerless to act even though the property is being built in the National Park but not everyone agrees that the land is the governments to begin with those who have the money to give land to people here is still on hold and finally would have me. The Community People for you to get those people on that you have to use some of the money. Again and again if you can you can apply a line is going to is very very far off my brother very very corrupt this is a n. P. A. Deal or those that dont even as you know i never think. Its africa. Government is. The very people in the office and the minister of law and the only document they want if its in the water they dont want to move documents Building Permits in syria are issued by the ministry of law and the location of each property is meant to be verified before the paperwork is issued the ministry is also supposed to monitor and demolish legal structures supported by a number of other Government Agencies this is a very complex issue. There are times you make of only produce documents claiming to be given to them by a Government Authority and this is where the challenge comes in the institution responsible for that we believe should change if they think they have not issued out those document issued challenge individuals and there we enforce the law in this case it is a to the ministry of land itself to enforce the law the minister of law diana corona manny was unavailable to speak to us but a spokesman explained the problems they face when in fact that you can easily get in a Building Permit for example to peer in a polluted area because of corruption but it is possible for someone to buy land in a National Park with a silver plan and a Building Permit because there is a. Who grabs those lands and serves as a buyer who is willing to buy regardless of the location of the property and there is a Government Official who is really ready to issue a bill to permit without Due Diligence in most of these ministries. Employees are not paid there are no incentives. No equipment to do if it were there for people even when they have the skills and so its difficult for them to perform. Whole question is about making sure the governance system functions effectively and then youll be in a position to address most of this problems the problems are compounded by resistance from local communities eager to make use of labs they consider and heritage from their Community Elders as far back as in one nine hundred sixteen the western peninsula was declared as a reserve so if as far back as one thousand sixteen it was declared its very difficult for me to understand how communities can lay claim to certain areas. If government does bear any responsibility toward it would be very minimal we have consulted with the communities we have advised the communities to relocate in order to protect their own welfare and we have been confronted with earache and violent groups members. No one in the government of sierra leone or in the ministry of law has resigned their position. No one has lost their job for issuing a Building Permit in a dangerous real eco area. There have been pledges to begin demolition and some homes around the landslide size have been cleared but there is been no Public Inquiry into the issue of Building Permits in the freetown area. The government of syria does face enormous challenges the population of free turn has increased by ten times since the one nine hundred sixty s. Pretty down has expanded horizontal e it has not expanded war dick really all been planning the extremely poor and that a lot of slum areas which have been buried in the brains of many of the world and streams are around in the very down balance a lot like other cities across africa free turns lowing slums are plagued by flooding each rainy season. Nicholas was he was seeing what some of. Well you. Know what any athlete with. Any. You know. Unfortunately when. It will find. A way and that is where you will find most of the settlements and so unfortunately the ones who get affected in such a way and lose their lives. Amount of water flowing down the hills that is no way you know its not really being held back by the tree cover or the vegetation the intensity of flooding is really increasing and because the intensity of the flooding has increased that is making the hills more and more unstable sierra leone is already experiencing the effects of Climate Change the rainy season is growing shorter and more intense and with steep hill stripped of forest cover the effects are deadly. If you see just during the period between the first of july seventeen and the albeit of august the bones that were being which is when the landslide happened pretty down the sea of the more than one thousand millimeters of rainfall which is more than thirty times the average in a period of a month and a half and they need to take steps toward arrest these issues because the situation in the future is going to get worse. Freetown has to much more than the rainy season but in the dry season it faces a very different problem. Much more on this tact of the day. So people in queue how we got on tonight tell us. More russian what tell you how. Still it is not easy for them to stop blood what every day. Trees retain water they absorb it through their roots and release it slowly through their leaves into the atmosphere. To form again as rain. It is this ability of the forest to hold and release water that feeds the many streams in the hills around free time. Streams feed rivers and rivers feed reservoirs. Free turns population depends on these reza forests for its drinking water. But without forest cover the water cycle breaks down as rainfall runs quickly off the slopes and into the sea. Without the National Park in its forests a city of one point three Million People will find its water supply in jeopardy. The problems facing freetime are immense but the forests are resilient bachata. Bala has seen first time time nature can recover from human interference five years ago a hillside outside the chimpanzee sanctuary was cleared for construction by governments on the land grabbers were evicted today a forest has already begun to grow its not the first success theyve had when we first moved in here this is like this kind of trees everywhere they go this was all kind of weird innovative in the last into twenty four years these other ones you see you know theres not a big trees in. This footage which im so proud of it i planted it twenty three years ago yes im against some big mess and. Its something that im living up to its. Part of me part of the a story. Sierra leone is a poor nation. That has done little to contribute to Climate Change. And i would find itself facing an uncertain future. But there is still cause for hope. To have six months of rains and good but i saw and everything goes but you dont really need to plant even if you are allowed to rest in close by its not all lost scambling guess. Moniteur truck one two five im valued to see. The new car hold up on your date your identity is a commodity and we have to understand where im from when it come from lots of its time to reclaim our cyber sold so happened to be in the us something that. We are creators we are oculus we are. Give us back our data at this time on a business updates brought to you by Qatar Airways going places together. 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