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By: Yusuf M Hasan
Somalilandsun- Am afraid for my orphan children who are suffering from heat and hunger lamented Asha Buni a mother of six in Mayd a port town in Sanaag region Somaliland.
Ms. Asha who is original from Mogadishu and a 20 years resident of Mayd is currently among a very few families still in the port town during this hot season when those with means escape to cooler places elsewhere in the country.
Now recognized by many as a bona fide citizen of Somaliland the mother of six of whom the oldest is aged eight and the youngest three says she is unable to move to cooler areas due to financial constraints being the sole family breadwinner.
“Some of my younger children do not even comprehend death when told that their father died two years ago” says the orphans mother adding that the meager cash she collects working menial jobs has been barely enough to feed her children let alone save for emergencies like the one engulfing them now.
Unfortunately for the Buni family availability of cold water is minus zero owing to breakdown of the only ice producing machine in the town where almost all appointed and elected leaders are away from, having escaped the heat.
While poverty is part of life the irony of the circumstances surrounding the fate of Asha Buni and her children and others of their ilk in Mayd is the blind eye strategies being enacted by the local administration which is beneficiary of between 70-80 million, around $12,000 Somaliland shillings availed monthly by the central coffers as subsidies towards community support.
This subsidies from Hargeisa are in addition to regular fees collected by the local administration from import and export as well as other related taxation thence the imperatives of the central government taking urgent measures before circumstances similar to ongoing ones in Pakistan where over 1000 people and counting have died in Karachi as a result of excessive heat exacerbated by power outage.
According to data availed by gnarlysunset Current Weather Conditions in Mayd, Sanaag as at Thu, 25 Jun 2015 18:41:36 -0700 was
• Observation Time: 01:39 AM
• Current Weather: Clear
• Current Temperature: 69°F (21°C)
• Cloud Cover: 7%
• Relative Humidity: 56%
• Precipitation Today: 0.0 mm
• Pressure: 1008 mb
• Visibility: 10 km
• Wind Direction: 221° (SW)
• Wind Speed: 31 km (19 mi)
Situated in Sanaag region Mayd is an ancient port city in the East of Somaliland where it represents an early center of dispersal of the Somali speaking people whose ancestors like Sheikh Isaaq has his domed tomb located here as well as those of the ancestors of the Issa and Gadabuursi clans, whose territories are several hundred miles away among many others.
Meanwhile the mayor of Mayd Prof Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Saeed Mayd currently in Berbera has denied alleged reports that the ice producing machine in the coastal town has ceased function.
In a statement the mayor said that the much publicized and fake information is the work of a Sanaag region journalist based in Erigavo Abdilahi Darwish whom the civic leader accused of regular involvement in false reporting.
Stating that the Ice machine was not only operating at hundred percent capacity but that his council is in advanced plans of adding a second one, the mayor also revealed intent to pursue issues related to the alleged unethical practices of journalist Darwish with the Somaliland Journalist Association-Solja
Though the mayor’s denial is apt his statement neither addressed the issue of his constituents who are heat overwhelmed nor the purpose of his stay in Berbera home to biggest and busiest port in Somaliland
