By: Saidu Jalloh
Kissy Road, a very busy street in the East end of Freetown has been hit by seriously by dilapidated slabs which have caused lot of incidents. This has been the trend for that community for so many years, a lot of these slabs across the gutters have been broken and many a time people have been slipped and fell inside the gutters and injured themselves.
The effect of this broken slabs can’t be undermined or trivialized but crucial to the wellbeing and safety of every citizen using that axis for their daily business. To show their grievances towards the inconveniences broken slabs have caused to them, the residents of Kissy Road, a street linking the the city to the market, the people have lamented how broken slabs have affected their business and causing low patronage to their shops.
In an interview with one the residents of Kissy Road, the resident complained about the annoying scenario that the bad road had caused over years. Though, some residents noted that Sierra Leone Road Authority (SLRA) have for some months replacing broken slabs in some areas but had totally neglected theirs.
“This is one of the broken slabs in front of my shop, so it is difficult for customers to jump over this gutter to come and buy from me, and smell coming out of the gutter is not pleasant. We are living a deplorable life in this community and it is not fair because it is the center of the city,” the residents added.
Johnson, purging out his mind expressed that it has been a while they have been promising them that they are coming to fix the broken slabs and that even the areas where Road Safety Office is located all the slabs in that area is broken, so how safety is really they are.
The gutters at Kissy Road are not road friendly and many people use that road to do their business and many children including student are using that road to go to school, so this really makes more dangerous and need more attention. Even though, most of these slabs were broken by cars who parked on it but there should be a mentioned or policy in place for any car that break any slab should replace it.
Also traders are in the habit of using the footpaths to display their market which is causing discomfort and have also contributed to the growing amount of broken slabs in the community.
Speaking to Amadu, he raised the concern that slabs on the footpaths are broken, loose and damaged. The condition of the of the slabs is very dangerous for especially elderly people and school going children as there is the tendency for slabs to cause injury or serious accident. It is for this reason most pedestrians prefer to walk on the street rather than risk getting injured by loose and damaged slabs.
A student at Annie Walsh Memorial Secondary School told this medium that those slabs are more dangerous during rainy season because they have holes between and when between and when it rains, these holes are covered by water and it becomes difficult for people to identify the holes, which sometimes leads to accidents.
She added that at rainy season some shop owners will place stick in the hole LS to serve as a warning for people no to fall or step onto the slabs that are loose or damaged. Many have made a makeshift slabs where the necessary for people to use for a temporary moment at got spoilt again so it has become tiring for them.
The clogs in the gutters are not to talk about almost all the gutters at Kissy Road have been flood with dirt and all sort of rubbishes yet city council collect dues from them but doing nothing to clean the gutters.
The residents of Kissy Road are calling on SLRA and other stakeholders to please pay attention to them and come to their aid to solve these dangerous menace of broken slabs.
