In the United States, we are transitioning to wintry weather and we have  set 
our clocks back an hour. It is part of the Daylight Savings Time Program you  
may remember. Most of what the west does makes no sense to me either but this 
 one is based on the west's desire to synthesize available resources from 
Allah  for the development of their people. Adjusting the clock (an invention) to 
life  is uniquely innovative. It may not be terribly valuable for Gambia 
until we are  able to figure out what to do with an extra hour of daylight. On 
second thought,  we could look at it not from the daylight aspect but from 
productivity and  comfort. It just dawned on me that much of the day is hot in 
Gambia. That  inhibits both farming and industry. Since most work is done outdoors 
and since  we cannot yet afford the energy requirements of round-the-clock  
air-conditioning, it may be worthwhile for us to look into beginning the work  
day an hour earlier and replacing that hour with an hour's break around mid-day 
 or closing for work an hour earlier than we currently do. If I were to 
choose,  I'd go for an extra hour of break at mid-day because the heat subsides 
later in  the day making it marginally insignificant to knock off an extra hour 
earlier. I  encourage you to study this phenomenon. It may not be valuable if 
you have to  legislate or force it like the set-settal but considered 
persuasion could do the  trick.
 
Forgive me for digressing. I must share with you that I am particularly  
pleased and hopeful of events unfolding in Pakistan lately. They have actually  
been brewing for some time now and we will make sure the affect is as benign as  
possible on Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. I am confident you 
share  that desire with us. I encourage you to advise General Musharaf that all 
nations  go through life-cycles and that martial law may work at a certain time 
in the  life of a nation but that at a different time it may prove comically 
inferior to  constitutional law. We must be encouraged by the General's wisdom 
and I urge all  of us to encourage him in his sojourn in circumspect. He 
promised  to relinquish his authority in the country's armed forces and promised 
to  hold elections no later than February of 08. One thing I want him to do is 
to  declare the end of martial law by this month's end so that electioneering  
by parties will not be unduly burdened with the colour of martial law. In  
effect, he declared that martial law in his opinion was necessary as a stop-gap  
measure to prevent Pakistan's suicide and erosion of its gains under him.  It 
is a matter of perspectives, but nations don't commit suicides. Nationals do. 
 And to the extent all nationals commit suicide, the nation becomes  dead.
 
WHen we last spoke, forgive me again, I shared the importance of The River  
of Gambia on the basis of disaster-mitigation and resource management. Today,  
and with the added caveat that if it weren't for the River, we would have had 
no  Gambia, I want to discuss how you handled the floods of the fall of 2003. 
The  West used it as a trans-shipment artery for slaves from the interior, and 
 wouldn't you know it, more of our people were drawn to its banks from 
Senegal,  Mali, Guinea, and Bissau even as parallel commerce in slaves  was 
flourishing at the Cassamance, Saloum, Bissau, and Mano Rivers.
 
The first thing that struck me was that both Response and mitigation was  
coordinated by the Catholic Relief Services. This was shameful to me even though  
the CRS was only too pleased to guide us. What I believe is that the Gambia  
government should coordinate the Response and mitigation and it should invite  
the NGOs such as the CRC to assist in whatever capacity they could to 
alleviate  the suffering of your people.
It is unfortunate that we cannot help ourselves even if our lives depended  
on it but be that as it may, and having learned from this major shortcoming, I  
want to share with you some of the basic tasks and considerations in  
establishing an effective national disaster management program. In these  
conversations, I will share general principles because I am ever confident that  with the 
proper utilization of Gambia's human resources, you should not be bored  with 
detail.
 
I know we have several national disasters to consider, namely:
 
Epidemics and Pandemics
Flood
Fire
Airline disaster
Shipwreck
Errant satellite falling on Gambian soil.
 
I will focus on floods because it presents the most hazard to large-scale  
loss of life, crops, and communicable disease. And, the processes for flood  
damage mitigation and prevention can be applied to most other areas of disaster  
management.
 
One thing we must do is to understand the character of a flood and its  
source. You and I both understand that a flood can issue from the River Gambia's  
irregular flow and unseasonal flow rate, or that of either of the two confluent 
 rivers prior to River's gracing Gambia. This is because water flows from  
highlands to lowlands and it seeks its level through immense odds, even the  
strongest barricades as Katrina's breach of the corps' dike systems. We also  
have the potential risk of the Atlantic flooding the other way but that is  
historically more remote and because of the nature of our coastline, we ought to  
manage the River system first. By the way, I am proud of you for your efforts 
in  reaching out to Senegal to consider protocols of collaboration in common 
life.  Indeed, the River and its management comprises the bulk of the 
commonalities.  The tow nations are populated by River people.
 
We have departments of Hydrometeorology, Agriculture, and water Resources,  
Interior, and works and infrastructure. These, together with the armed  forces 
will form the crux of the disaster management system. I included the  military 
because their mission is the defense of Gambia from within and from  without. 
Since we do not risk an invasion from the US no time soon, we can  utilize 
our enormous military resources to yield Gambia value. Let us talk about  
preventative measures first while in the meantime setting up an effective  Water 
Resource Management Board (The RIver Board) and Gambia Emergency  Management 
Association (GEMA or whatever we like). These commissions will not be  a useless 
dipstick bureaucracy, but will be engaged year-round, so they will  mainly be 
technical committees and will not be valuable as political appointees.  The 
Vice President can now focus on other ceremonial matters of  government.
 
Oh, before I forget, the governors of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have  
been engaged in negotiations under the auspices of the Federal Water Resources  
Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to share ideas on mitigation of the  
affects of droughts on their populations. I think they have resolved a critical  
component of the corps' allocation and appropriation regime. I thought it was  
funny when Governor Sonny Perdue came back to plead with us to pray for more  
rain. That Sonny is a funny dude. You must commend him for proactivity though 
 and their talks yielded a more comprehensive regime for the corps' 
allocation  program. Of course and for obvious reasons, he did not share that detail 
with  all of us. Suffice it to say that with citizen conservation and soothing 
prayer,  I think we done good.
 
When I next speak with you, I will share the possible composition of TRB  and 
WAMMEH (Jammeh) that you may use as a base for your government's  
consideration. I will end today with an idea on Monitoring and Data  collection.
 
I understand we have a hydrologic station in Basse. If we do not already  
have them, I recommend similar stations at McCarthy/Janjangbureh, Farafenni  
(BambaTenda/Yellitenda), Bintang, Brikamaba, Kiang West National park, Kanilai  
National Park/Sindola, and Essau, with a comprehensive Laboratory at the  mouth 
of Sandougou Bolong.
 
The hydrologic stations should be manned 24/7 by a 3-man crew, on of whom  
should be a hydrologist. They will be collecting data on flow-rate, volume,  
turbidity, dissolved oxygen, rainfall, wind-speeds, sedimentation, salinity,  
inorganics, mineral content, catalog of River life, etc. The Hydromet can design  
a task regime and parameters for the data. The main laboratory should be  
provided with an experiment boat. If there is none, we can retrofit one of the  
Navy's many boats for the purpose. It will be wise if we use a renewable-energy 
 fueled boat such as solar, wind, or some hybrid. That should come out of the 
 Water Resources budget or other. Of course it will have to be maintained 
while  in use and not just used to death without a maintenance program. This boat 
can  patrol the river equipped with early warning instruments and under the 
joint  purview of TRB and Water Resources. It must not be used as a pleasure 
boat, or  an election campaign boat. You can call it Deyda or Koro in honour of 
those  pioneer citizens.
 
I am aware of the OMVG but the OMVG is a regional org. and it needs this  
support mechanism in order to be valuable and effective. It will be nice for the  
OMVG folk to go to a meeting armed with such valuable and productive work  to 
guide their negotiations. Besides, you would wish to show your  counterparts 
that Gambia does her homework and is not just a freeloader  on our partners. 
This data collection and monitoring effort will also  augment our capacity to 
complete feasibility studies for any riverine  infrastructure. You will never 
have to pay foreign experts for feasibility  studies that we can complete 
ourselves. Disciplined data collection is the  essence of a nation's life. It will 
enable you to forecast more accurately or to  visualize development more 
appropriately. The data that is collected must be in  the public domain or easily 
accessible by schools and newspapers free of charge  save for copying costs if 
any. The best way is to publish the data regularly and  allow citizens to keep 
their own archives. In the area of Resource and disaster  management, the 
more dissemination the better. If we get real excited, we can  have two of the 
boats and use one to monitor and regulate industrial  effluence into the river. 
Another value of the data collection can be alert to  dredging needs or the 
health of wetlands along the river.
 
I am tired of writing now but I will see you soon again. It would be nice  if 
you make some effort toward the hydrologic stations, laboratory, and boats  
before that time. If we cannot afford the boats at this time, let me know so 
one  of our colleagues at Ellen can spearhead a funds drive for two boats. We 
will  purchase them from Australia, Belgium, or Canada. The only drawback will 
be that  if we raise the funds from Ellen, we reserve the right to name the 
boats and  coordiante their activities. I know you wouldn't like that but its 
only  fair.
 
Haroun Masoud. MQDT. Darbo. Al  Mutawakkil.  



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