Sierra Leone: Poor drainage floods Kissy Road

Flood Vehicular and human movements were completely impeded past Friday, when a one hour thirty minutes rain flooded drainages and the entire Kissy Road in the East End of Freetown. Kissy Road; the busiest and possibly the most used city road to access the east end of Freetown, and out of the city to the provinces, hosts so many other access routes, especially for the mountain communities. These communities have over the years been a safe haven for land squatters, who, in the process of building their shacks, take no cognizance of possible erosion as a result of serious land depletion in those communities.
However, according to Mustapha Mansaray, one of the tenants residing in one of the shacks erected close to the demarcation fence for Fourah Bay College, because of the fact that there are no proper drainages constructed around those houses, and lack of sanitary control measures especially an identified location for garbage disposal, inhabitants dump wastes in-between houses and latrines at all times.
Therefore, he noted, whenever it rains, all the garbage in those communities are driven down to small gutters, and they further meander to the main Kissy road drainage, which is certainly not well dug up to contain huge pile of garbage and the gravel or loose soil that descends from the mountains.
Past Friday, Kissy Road was gradually becoming inaccessible for even commuters, as vehicles got stuck in the flash floods, causing unprecedented traffic congestion for mobility of all sorts.
Matters became worse when the spillover of the drainage sought refuge in residences along Kissy Road. Residents made frantic efforts to bail out the filthy brownish water that had invaded their yards, and were seen with long sticks, shovels and pickaxes, digging and throwing out garbage that had become lodged in their respective compounds.
Most people; men, women but particularly children were swept to the ground by the rapids in their attempt to throw garbage in the already flooded Kissy Road drainage. Fortunately, no body lost his/her life in the venture except that most of them sustained minor bruises, lost mobile phones, shoes and sneakers alongside their umbrellas.
Most of them, upon interview, cited the throwing of garbage in the drainage and the Freetown City Council’s inability to provide a secured site for them to deposit garbage. They said when they dispose of their garbage along the road for city council to collect (as they have been ordered by FCC), they alleged that it takes days, and at times weeks for the garbage to be cleared. As a result, when it rains, they pour them in the nearby drainage for fear of the health implication they might cause if they are left unattended.
However, concerned residents, especially those along Kissy Road are calling on authorities to either properly clear off the drainages to allow smooth flow of water or possibly construct “Samba Gutters” that will run from the mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in a bid to prevent future flooding that might spell disaster in the country.
By Poindexter Sama