June 9, 2021
By Aruna Kamara from Makeni
Some residents of Makeni have expressed dissatisfaction over the action of the National Protected Area Authority (NPAA) to stop them from building houses in places they consider safe.
Speaking to this medium, some of the residents in Makeni said that it is Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) that has the responsibility to stop them from building but they are now seeing the national protected area authority joining the bad wagon to stop them to build houses.
One Hassan Koroma said that he is building his house and nobody came to tell him to stop building, except NPAA who came early in the morning and instructed them to stop on the grounds that it is prohibited by law to build in swamps.
Koroma said that they would have engaged him instead of writing on the house to stop construction and called on the NPAA to intensify awareness raising so that people will stop building in the swamps.
“I will not continue to build any longer but I want the NPAA to pay me for the money used to construct the house. I have spent twenty million so far” he said.
Jonathan Kargbo another resident in Makeni said that building houses in swamps is not good as it will block the free flow of water, adding that he had to demolish his structure in Freetown and even in Makeni when SLRA said it is a right of way and the house is in a Swamp.
Reacting to the concerns, Some staff of NPAA in a telephone interview said that ‘’ NPAA ensures the protection of natural ecosystems and to curb actions that threaten the biodiversity in Sierra Leone including the establishment and maintenance of representative and sustainable samples and overseeing the management of local and private nature reserves and sanctuaries throughout Sierra Leone including zoos and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centres.
Members of Civil Society led organization on Environmental protection told this medium that the rampant building of houses in swamp is a concern to them and have called on NPAA and the council to join them mount a robust advocacy against it.