In a bid to reduce the looming flood disaster at Susan’s Bay, Susan’s Bay Community Disaster Management Committee (CDMC) has sought financial support from two humanitarian organizations, including Caritas Freetown and TUZHI.

It I meant to carry out a massive cleaning exercise within their section in the community.

It is seen as a means of early response to avert any similar flood disaster suffered over the years.

“Our duty as a community based organization is to serve as first responders to disasters like fire outbreaks and floodings before the intervention of fire force officers or Office of National Security (ONS) men and the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and other humanitarian relief organizations to give us a helping hand to future victims of those disasters again.

CDMC says they want to prevent that from happening again to be always receiving aid when disasters like 2021 fires hit seriously.

Speaking to journalists during the cleaning exercise held on Saturday, 31st May, 2025 at the Susan’s Bay slum community in central Freetown, one of the community stakeholders,Joseph T. Conteh, maintained that raising awareness and sensitization on the need to prioritize regular cleaning must be their goal.

But asked that they need to be serious enough in that regard to avert flooding and fire disasters.

Mr. Conteh said CDMCs initiatives were brought up by ONS since 2007 with one week intensive training on fire prevention, flood mitigation and collection of waste management across designated disaster prone zones, featuring thirty targeted beneficiaries of the training.

Noting that inter-community sensitizations and identifications of disaster prone areas are part of their work.

The Chairman of Susan’s Bay Community, Mr. Ishmael G. Kamara, said they were also supported with different working tools, adding that the funds provided by donor partners were directed to be managed at community level since residents themselves understand their  problems much better.

Kamara said Caritas Freetown and TUZHI developed interest in funding the project.

It is part of their response to the project on waste management which was written to them with the title “Manage waste well.”

He further elaborated that the goal of the project is to see how best they as community people could manage wastes and prevent disasters.

He noted that the entire cleaning project was supported with Three Thousand Dollars ($3,000), an equivalent of Nle76, 000.

He talked about the proposed stakeholders engagement with focus to develop new bylaws. The community bylaws which should be in line with the ones by the Freetown City Council (FCC) waste management collection initiative, targeting community levels.

He expressed their determination as CDMC members to popularize the would be community bylaws in that section of the community.

He called on government, NGOs and individual philanthropists to come to their aid.

Kamara says they are seriously in need of more working tools like wheelbarrows, rakes, pickaxes, shovels, rain boots, coats, hand gloves, face masks, fire extinguishers, a standby bailing machine meant to help extinguish fire. He said that could help on fire disasters at emergency periods when the country’s fire force men would not have been around.