flooding – Lost Freetown

September 4, 2020

Community, Participation, Resilience: flood control strategies in Freetown

The election of the new mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyer on March 2018 has marked a notable change in the way the city is administered.

Indeed, for the first time, the Freetown City Council has prepared a well-structured strategic plan, with clear objectives, concrete tools and, above all, time horizons and solutions for economic coverage.

The plan, promoted by Sawyer, which focuses on the improvement of the city’s environment, on risk mitigation and the consequent strengthening of the city’s resilience – is called “Transform Freetown”.

August 30, 2019

Cockle Bay discovers the power of restoring mangroves

Freetown, as a tropical capital, used to feature a particularly rich wetland ecosystem on the coast, which remains to be considered a Ramsar or conservation site and therefore falls under the purview of the National Protected Area Agency (NPAA). Poor conservation strategies and a high demand for housing have seriously damaged the green portions of the city, and with that, increased the risk of inland and coastal floods.

November 22, 2018

The day the mountain fell: Sierra Leone’s mudslide

Two weeks before the landslide, Bala and his team stood beneath the Sugarloaf Mountain in Regent and told local school students about the dangers of deforestation, of the risks of landslides, of the importance of the peninsula forest in providing clean water for the people.

Two weeks later, dozens of those same children were dead – lost beneath the thousands of tonnes of earth and stone that slipped off the mountainside on the morning of August 14 (2017).

September 19, 2017

Flooding in Freetown: Why and what next?

A moratorium established to stop encroachment into protected areas of the Western Peninsular Forest has not been enforced. The Environmental Protection Agency’s deputy director Mohammed Bah said in 2015 that “irresponsible actions taken on the hills will affect the city greatly”. But construction in these areas continues with impunity, perhaps linked to the fact that many residents are politically connected. The rate of deforestation is alarming and the associated impacts are being felt across the city and not just during the rainy season.

September 17, 2017

Building Citizen and Community Resilience to Respond to Emergencies

Though local residents, volunteers, faith groups and the community at large are proactive self-organisers and have always been the ‘first and critical emergency response’ — their contribution is often unacknowledged, thereby reinforcing the narrative that it’s only institution-led efforts that have an impact in minimising or reducing the scale of disasters.

June 10, 2017

Flying over Freetown

Take a 2 minute tour of the Freetown Peninsula

October 21, 2016

Audiograms: experiments in sharing audio content

We’re experimenting with new ways of generating and sharing audio content through social media. Please listen and share these two ‘Audiograms’ that were created from work produced during our recent Environmental Reporting Workshops in Freetown.

August 24, 2016

Environmental Reporting Workshops, Freetown

I’m pleased to have been part of the recent environmental reporting workshops organised by the Lost Freetown Collective (LFC) and Hirondelle USA, and hosted by Concept Multimedia. Led by co-director of LFC, Nazia Parvez, the workshops brought together Freetown-based journalists and media professionals to explore the theme: ‘coastal zone management and climate change.’

July 19, 2016

Mangrove Restoration: Case Studies from Thailand, Vietnam, and India

Mangrove forests form an integral part of coastal ecosystems and play a key role in climate change mitigation. Growing in tropical and sub-tropical tidal areas, such as estuaries and marine shorelines, their roots extend deep into the coastal sediment. They serve as effective natural barriers to rising sea levels and flooding, bearing the brunt of storm surges and preventing excessive sedimentation. According to Corcoran, Ravilious and Skuja (2007), mangroves also serve as major carbon sinks, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere together with other greenhouse gases.

June 8, 2016

Sierra Leone’s Coastal Wetlands: A Need for Urgent Action

Recent incidences of flooding and localised landslides in Freetown have clearly indicated that Sierra Leone lacks the capacity to absorb the effects of such disasters. There is weak resilience, a low level of preparedness and inadequate adaptive capacity in the country to resist climate-induced natural disasters. Communities that are directly affected, including Susan’s Bay in Central Freetown, are increasingly experiencing adverse environmental conditions, especially flooding during the rains, and dwindling water supplies.