By Ragan M. Conteh

Sierra Leone stands at the edge of an environmental tipping point as the 2025 rainy season looms.

In a country already scarred by the memory of the 2017 Regent mudslide—which claimed over 1,000 lives and displaced more than 3,000 people—the warning signs are clear. Torrential rains, intensified by climate change, are expected to return in full force, and sadly the country’s preparedness remains alarmingly inadequate.

At the heart of the crisis is the destruction of Sierra Leone’s once-thriving greenbelt zones.

These forested areas, designed to serve as natural buffers against floodings and soil erosions, which have been steadily eroded by deforestation and unregulated urban sprawl.

Global Forest Watch data reveals Sierra Leone lost more than 798 square kilometres of tree cover between 2001 and 2022, amounting to a 21% decrease in natural forest.

Freetown, in particular, has seen massive hillside clearance as informal housing rapidly expands to accommodate a growing population—now over 1.2 million in the capital alone.

The consequences of this urban encroachment are dire.

Without trees to anchor the soil and absorb excess rainfall, water cascades freely down the hillsides during storms, thus overwhelming the city’s poor drainage systems. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that more than 60% of Freetown’s settlements are informal, with most lacking any formal infrastructure or legal recognition. These communities are highly vulnerable not only to flooding and landslides but also to disease outbreaks that typically follow such disasters.

In 2022 alone, over 15,000 people were displaced by flood-related incidents in Sierra Leone, with damages costing the country more than $30 million in emergency response and infrastructure repairs. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has identified Sierra Leone as one of West African nations that’s mostly exposed to climate-induced disasters, especially given its fragile environmental management systems and limited urban planning enforcement.

Despite repeated warnings, construction continues on high-risk slopes.

Logging and land grabbing, driven by both poverty and corruption, have become widespread, going even on forest protected areas.

Satellite imagery confirms the alarming pace at which forest cover is vanishing around Freetown, reducing the forest land’s ability with rainfall and a stabilize terrain.

The government has initiated some reforestation and relocation programs, including the Freetown the Treetown campaign, which sees the planting of over 500,000 trees since 2020.

However, experts argue that these efforts are far from being enough. Urban growth has outpaced policy enforcement, and illegal construction often proceeds faster than government interventions.

With rainfall expected to intensify in the coming months, Sierra Leone is once again racing against time. Meteorological projections suggest that rainfall levels this season could exceed the yearly average of 3,000 mm in the Western Area, thereby putting enormous pressure on both the land and on the people.

If urgent action is not taken—including mass tree planting, relocation of at-risk communities, and enforcement of land-use laws—Freetown could see a repeat or even a worsening of past tragedies.

Sierra Leone’s environmental future now hangs on the balance.