By: Hafsatu Z Bangura
An accumulation of uncollected garbage, congested drainage and heavy rain recently led to the destruction of two houses at Mo wharf Community in Freetown, a local authority said.
The community headman Manika Bangura said the people use the drainage as a dumping site to the extent it’s now clogged with garbage this he said has made the community now prone to disasters.
He continued that even in the dry season the community often experience disaster’s since there is not enough water to deposit or dispose of the garbage from the drainage to the sea.
The drainage will be congested and when the tap is opened for people to fetch water the waste ages from the tap that gets into the already dirt filled drainage, overflows and enters into people’s houses, he said.
Mo wharf is a slum community with an estimated 1,000 people living there most of whom are children.
Like any other slum area in Sierra Leone, life at Mo wharf Community is extremely harrowing for the hundreds of people living there especially with the poor sanitation and due to the population growth in Freetown, Mo wharf in effect has become overcrowded as well as due to the high cost of rent people are left with no other option than live in these slim areas.
At Mo wharf, the people banked the drainage system to build the houses they live in thus, exposing them to danger Mr Bangura explained.
He continued that during the floods that killed four people in September in 2015, Mo wharf was one of those communities the floods hit directly.
Many people were injured and left homeless at the time and had to be temporarily housed at the National Stadium he said.
He went on that the youths at Mo wharf usually clean the drainage but it always get filled up again quickly with dirt.
“As I am talking now this garbage has destroyed two houses as a result of the rain last week,” he said.
He disclosed to this medium that people whose houses were destroyed about three months ago, due to the overflow of dirt filled drainage into their homes are still temporarily living in the community centre because they have nowhere to go and they have now been joined by residents whose houses were destroyed recently by the dirt filled garbage there by compounding the community’s problems he said.
He therefore called on the government, Freetown city council and the National disaster management agency and non-governmental organizations to come to the community’s aid.
Gbassay Kamara a fish seller who is also one of the victims said she’s been living in the community for a long time, as a single parent under the same dreadful and inhumane conditions.
She added that she has no other alternative than continue living in the community centre.
This she said is because she solely depends on her fish selling for survival with her children from the smoked fish she usually buys and prepare in the community.
Member of Parliament for Constituency 122 Hon. Alieu Ibrahim Kamara whose Constituency covers Mo wharf recently also highlighted in parliament the community’s horrible living condition and warned of even serious disaster if the necessary assistance isn’t rendered to the community people soonest.
