Following several incidents of flooding across the country, especially in the Western Area that impacted lives and property in 2022, the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and partners have embarked on the clearing of major drainages in flood-prone communities in Freetown.
The purpose of the clearing exercise is to improve the drainage infrastructure as we are already in the rains to greatly minimize the effect of potential flooding in the two (2) targeted communities – Cockle Bay and Kolleh Town.
The NDMA with support from NDMA’s Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMC), held a community engagement wherein local and religious leaders, tribal heads and other relevant stakeholders were engaged on the significance of properly managing their waste to reduce the risk from flood and channel migration hazards.
Both communities had identified, through the CDMCs, one hundred and fifty (150) persons in each community for the clearing exercise, and commenced work last week on a cash-for-work basis.
Abdul Karim Koroma, the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) Technical Advisor, pointed out that the two communities were strategically targeted because of their susceptibility to floods and their vulnerability to mitigating the effects of flooding.
“During the August 28th floods last year, Cockle Bay and Kolleh Town were amongst the hardest hit. It’s against this backdrop that the CRS is supporting the NDMA to facilitate the clearing of five (5) clogged drainages of ten (10) meters each in Cockle Bay and one (1) 400-meter-long clogged drainage at Kolleh Town,” he stated
The NDMA provided both communities with the necessary tools on a use-and-return basis. The tools include shovels, hand gloves, wheelbarrows, pickaxes, etc. which were donated to the NDMA by UNICEF Sierra Leone to support communities and other national cleaning exercises.
The NDMA also provided food items to enhance the performance of the workers.
The CDMC Chairman of Cockle Bay, Alieu Bah, expressed his delight for the intervention ahead of the rains. He noted that such engagements will help raise awareness about potential hazards and how to address them, which can reduce the disruptive impacts of flooding on communities.
Mr Bah also drew the attention of NDMA and CRS to the poor waste management and sanitation systems in his community that have negatively impacted the inhabitants.
The NDMA has developed its Flood Mitigation Strategy for the country and will continue to engage partners/donors to solicit support to enable it implement the activities contained in the strategy, thereby minimizing the effects of floods and other related hazards on the population.
