Residents, mostly women and children are in great danger whenever the water level rises, erosion and other disasters that normally affect city slums during the rainy season.
Speaking to AYV the women said, the rain usually affects them and that the water always jumps over walls and enters into their houses. “We scoop water from inside our houses whenever it rains. It is very tormenting for us and our children,” they said.
Every year more women and children are left homeless as a result of flooding and similar disasters that affect them. Most of these residents live in makeshift or substandard structures that can be easily swept away by heavy downpour.
They added that the government should come to their aid.
Poor drainage according to them is one of the causes for flooding in their communities and some parts of the city and that the garbage thrown into culvert is another reason for blockage and flooding.
Despite government’s national cleaning effort it seems as if the cleaning is not effective or rather people are refusing to clean the culverts which is affecting residents living in slum communities.
They went on to say that the strides by the Freetown City Council to clean the culverts was one of the reasons why they did not observe flooding last year and that they are hoping that the Council will continue this.
“The place is so cold for us and our children and sometimes they fall sick because of the rains and flooding” they said.