By Ibrahim Karim Bangura (Tanko)

Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone has a total of 74 slums with an estimated population of over 900,000 people dwelling in those slum communities.

These settlements are not homogeneous in nature as they all share different peculiarities in terms of composition, location, and access. There are slum settlements on the hilltops or mountain slopes, in the middle of the city, and on the shore line.

Most of these settlements, especially those on the shoreline, such as Kroo Bay, Cockle Bay, Old Wharf, Aberdeen Coffee Wharf, Big Wharf, Susans Bay are now experiencing a boom in population.

Those slum areas on the Mountain slopes such as Mount Aureol, Leicester Road, Tree Planting, Kamanda Farm community, among others have also been reported to have started experiencing slow rise in population.

Speaking to Africa24 the Secretary General of the Kroo Bay Community, Mohamed Papani Kargbo said people are attracted to the area because they cannot afford to pay high rents in the urban areas within the city, and believe that they can only survive in an environment where they can afford low cost housing, low cost of living and can have easy access to markets, where they trade in simple merchandise normally referred to as petty trading. He noted that the situation is not as bad as the Government wants to portray it and that they have been receiving Non-Governmental Organizations such as Plan International who even trained 25 Executive members on capacity building, leadership, Project Management, and Youth empowerment, adding that in 2003 the Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) built the first community school and health center at Kroo Bay.

Youth Chairman of Old Wharf community, East End of Freetown, Abdul Turay told this medium that they have been residing in the slum areas for over ten years, adding that the government should provide health facilities for them as they also voted for President Julius Maada Bio and the New Direction Administration.

The Chairlady of the Leicester road hill community, Madam Kadiatu Sesay said although they have not experienced any serious disaster in their area, they are currently facing huge challenges with access to adequate water supply and accessibility. She said they have no roads even though they have promised by successive governments who don’t actually want them there.

According to the Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki- Sawyerr , across West Africa, the damage wrought by the rainy season increases every year.

In Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, the effects of climate change are aggravated by rampant and unplanned development. Deforested hillsides and clogged-up waterways suffer regular mudslides and floods.

Slum dwellers, often erected on land reclaimed from the sea and built without permits using cheap materials such as corrugated metal sheets, offer Freetonians scant protection from higher temperatures, stronger storms, and rising sea levels.

Climate change is a financial burden too: Sierra Leone estimates it will need to spend $90million a year on adaptation or about 2.3 per cent of its GDP but the City’s Mayor since 2018, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr is determined to lead the way in climate mitigation by reforesting the hills around the capital and calling for an overhaul of land planning laws.

“We are facing disaster after disaster,” said Madam Aki-Sawyerr. “There is a significant interface between climate-related events and how we build, where we build, and what we build,” Freetown Mayor, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

Heavy rainfall hit Sierra Leone between August and September, causing flash floods and mudslides that destroyed thousands of homes in Freetown. “We need to move people out of areas that are literally disaster-prone,” she said.

Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is calling on the Ministry of lands, Housing and Country Planning to engage in planning so that the system can become an effective urban management tool that stops buildings being erected without permission or on sites that harm the environment.

“I’m not asking to be in charge of giving out land but people need an idea of what can be built,” she stated. As Mayor Aki-Sawyerr put it, Freetown’s challenge “is exacerbated by the fact that construction happens anywhere and everywhere.”

The Mayor said there are now 74 unauthorized settlements or slums in the city whose ad hoc development is typical of fast-growing African cities.

Migrants from rural areas where some crops now struggle to grow flock to these areas. “This has fuelled Freetown’s exponential growth in the last 20 years to between 1.2mn and 1.5mn,” Madam Aki-Sawyerr pointed out. “That growth has not been planned, it has been done without any sort of environmental considerations, so there is adaptation that needs to be done.”

The slums typify the challenge. Mud and silt accumulate with waste in waterways, shacks are built over and sometimes within culverts too; when the rain comes there is nowhere for the water to go.

As a member of the former President’s Ebola recovery team, the Mayor’s decision to run for office was partly based on a lack of action over the continued deforestation — even after the August 2017 mudslides that resulted in the deaths of 1,000 people.

“Under Aki-Sawyerr, Freetown has embarked on an innovative tree planting programme to increase the capital’s vegetation over by 50 per cent. Set up with funding from the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility, the #FreetownTheTreetown campaign connects nurseries with workers who plant trees and record their growth and the overall increase in canopy cover, via an app,” She said.

More than 550 jobs have been created under the scheme, which covers both municipal and private land. Reflecting the wider planning problems, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr said “there have been some tree losses but the monitors work hard with communities to protect them and the survival rates have been high,” she noted.

“The target of planting 1million trees should be achieved by October next year,” She hoped.