REGENT DISASTER: FOREBODINGS OF DR. BANYA AND THE ENGINEERS.

By Andrew Keili

One thing you cannot fault my dear Uncle "Puawui" on is his brains and his passion for what he believes in. The good old Doctor, now in the twilight years of his eventful life also happens to be an avid environmentalist who is Honorary President of the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers (SLIE), of which yours truly is a proud member has been on the same page with the good doctor to warn about impending disasters of the kind we have just experienced at Regent.

I will digress a bit and come back to Dr. Banya and the Engineers.

Dr Sama Banya ("Puawui")

It is a well known fact that Sierra Leone faces many natural hazards including meteorological hazards. In addition to this there are many manmade disasters caused by deforestation, coastal sand mining, artisanal aggregate mining and other factors. Although most of the urban development is on the flat land adjacent to the coast, increasingly urban developments are spreading up the hillsides due to a lack of land. A large number of households–both rich and poor-have built houses on the steep hillsides on the edge of the city, thus increasing their vulnerability to landslides caused by deforestation and soil erosion.

A death toll of over 300 and still rising, with over 2000 people affected in the current disaster is much bigger that the normal annual disasters we are used to. Hundreds more may be still lying under the rubble. This one is indeed of epic proportions.

Control of illegal buildings and deforestation for various human needs has proved difficult. Despite the best efforts of regulatory institutions, they are hampered by several issues including paucity of funds, capacity problems and poor enforcement of apt regulations.

With the current disaster it would appear that there were no warnings in place and affected people were caught totally unawares. Despite the disasters we have annually, Sierra Leone unlike other countries does not have an autonomous Disaster Management unit/agency. What exists is a Disaster Management Department within the Office of National Security (ONS), with the mandate to coordinate disaster related activities. The Department is enmeshed in the budgetary limitations of the ONS. and as such its activities are not adequately funded.

Early warning systems (EWS) allow at-risk populations to be forewarned to take both preparatory and preventive measures before hazards strike. However the Meteorological Department established in 1961 as an offshoot of the British West African Meteorological Services that was established in 1923 is in a shambles and is largely ineffective in this area. The responsibilities of the department which include " the safety and well being of citizens and their protection against severe weather situations and devastation from natural disasters" is largely ignored. Despite the assistance given by various organisations like the UNDP in terms of automatic weather stations and observation data management systems there are still a considerable number of lapses in the Department. This has now been converted to an Agency as per the recently enacted Sierra Leone Meteorological Agency Act, 2017 which should ostensibly make it more effective-we await the results.

Most of the Ministries Departments and Agencies concerned with lands, environment and building permits are grossly underfunded, inefficient, lack enforcement capability and are sometimes ridden with corruption. Laws are hardly enforced and there is often a brazen disregard the rule of law by the public-both rich and poor.

Kudos to the many groups that are helping out in the current disaster. The ONS, other Government Agencies, International organisations, NGOs, various community organisations are all putting their hands to the wheel to ameliorate the suffering of affected persons. The Government has been very proactive and we have seen the President make a statement and various Ministers and their Ministries in the forefront of this fight. Opposition politicians have also chipped in. There is however a sense of déjà vu as we go through this ritual every time there is a disaster- and now it seems like it is every year.

As laudable as the disaster response may be it behooves us as a country to also identify, assess and monitor disaster risks , enhance early warning and use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels. We have a fairly good knowledge of the hazards and the physical, social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities to disasters faced and of the ways in which hazards and vulnerabilities are changing in the short and long term.

We cannot say we have not been warned about what may arise if we do not forestall such impending problems.

In an article in the Sierra Leone Telegraph on May 28, 2014 titled "The tragedy of Freetown's Peninsular forests" the erudite Dr Sama Banya wrote:

" On the peninsular road, my heart bled as I looked up at Mount Sugar Loaf and the chain of mountains of the Western area Peninsular, overlooking Freetown and the Atlantic Ocean. The mountains have been completely rid of every forest cover and vegetation, leaving them bare and ugly. This unfortunate and sad condition has been caused by human activity, including deliberate clearing for the expansion of human settlements. Everywhere, buildings are being erected further up towards the top of the mountain range.

During my twenty-five years with the Conservation Society, we and other groups engaged in the preservation of our biodiversity, devoting much time creating public awareness through advocacy and education. This was aimed at nature conservation and the preservation of our rich fauna and wildlife. It would now appear as if we had been preaching to deaf ears........The government................must now make a determined effort to take strong action. They must halt any further extension of human settlements up the mountain slopes. Also, they must seek funding and contract out the task of comprehensive tree planting on the mountain tops and the entire area."

I have also relayed in this column at least on two occasions the forebodings of the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers (SLIE). In their Press release titled "Uncontrolled development activities within the city", the release stated:

"Uncontrolled development activities within the City, along the coast lines, along the hillsides and along the rights of way are causing serious environmental problems of deforestation with associated consequences related to health, loss of lives. and property............ It is very disturbing to know that most of these buildings are constructed without proper planning permits. We are therefore recommending that:

• A temporary ban is imposed on private development along the hillsides......along the sea-face of the coastline, and along the corridors of roads that are being investigated for construction and future development

• A broad based committee be formed comprising representatives from the Ministries of Works, Housing and Infrastructure, Lands Country Planning and the Environment, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority and representatives from SLRA, PERC and SLIE to deliberate and advise in this area.

• That the statutory laws of the land should be fully invoked to correct and arrest this chaotic situation.

SLIE has also been very vocal on the issue of building permits. In a letter to government, SLIE also called for enforcement of the building Laws and the need to address uncontrolled development of infrastructure in the city as well as malpractices in the profession. SLIE noted that "sub-standard infrastructural buildings and other projects are going on in the country noting that such projects, particularly housing, are being implemented without the involvement of engineers".

From the look of things Dr Banya's forebodings and those of SLIE may well be "voices crying in the wilderness".

Surely something must be done about this state of affairs. A friend of mine wrote on social media something that I thought was very apt:

"The most important lesson today is that a country cannot live by politics and religious wailing alone. Those who have been trained to save us from these self - inflicted catastrophes (planners, engineers, scientists, health care professionals, etc) have little say or value in this society. There is a near complete absence of modern best practices in the most basic aspects of how a city of this size and topology should be planned, built and managed. The impunity of our crimes against our beautiful natural environment in cutting down watershed sustaining ancient forests on our mountains so we could build private concrete coliseums would be deserving of a biblical plague were it not for the fact that it's always the poor who suffer disproportionately as a result of these crimes. This city is now a death trap from water and fire hazards. It is a national emergency that we do something about this reality after we have buried our dead. We have suffered more casualties in our city today from flooding than we experienced in the worst attack on it during our senseless civil war. Then the enemy was the RUF. Today it's our culture of criminal violation of rules and practices that make a city work for human habitation."

How poetic and apt!

Dr. Sama Banya in his aforementioned article also provided some plain spoken advice on what should be done:

"Unless and until there is a political will to do this – regardless, the battle to save the western area peninsular forests and mountains, would be futile and lost forever, with predictable dire consequences. I understand that on his Excellency’s instructions, a three storey house on a protected site has been demolished. If this is true, and I sincerely pray that it is, then there is hope for the successful implementation of the above proposals. Remember Mr. President, time is running out."

Without disparaging the yeoman's efforts of the various groups involved in the disaster relief effort, we must learn from what has now become an annual event. Even with the paucity of funds and problems faced by various MDAs it behoves the government to address some issues with seriousness. I can think of the following as being urgent:

1. Give more teeth to the Disaster Management Department at the ONS-capacitate them, make a significant budget provision and give them meaningful overarching control over disaster issues. Enforcement will need the strong backing of government and not be subject to the peccadilloes of the various MDAs regulating various areas germane to disaster-related issues.

2. Setting up a National Communication Centre for the interception and dissemination of early warning information concerning hazards and making it workable should be a priority.

3. Human interference into the processes of nature should be reversed, compensated and, in the future prevented as far as possible. Communication and sensitisation of the public on the dangers of destroying the catchment areas and blocking-up natural drainage channels will help but this must be backed by enforcement of laws- political will plays a great role in this. There should be no sacred cows when it comes to trying to avert such disasters.

May the souls of our unfortunate compatriots who have lost their lives in this debacle rest in peace and rise in glory and may healing be provided for those ailing and succour to the bereaved.

Ponder the forebodings of Dr Banya and the Engineers.

Ponder my thoughts.

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FURTHER COMMENTS AND FOOTAGES.

Flashback 2013: Why Freetown is a "TICKING TIME BOMB"

https://youtu.be/dvTmqnVpSng

The Minister of Lands:

https://www.facebook.com/israel.parpersnr/posts/10214042632729206

Great disasters

https://www.facebook.com/israel.parpersnr/posts/10214041151452175

Sierra Leone Under water flooding

https://youtu.be/kKBTZcc3Tjw

72 Years Lesson.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/714535695356881/permalink/1156632147813898/

MaxConteh FB Post

https://www.facebook.com/melomaxconteh/posts/10203373055323954

Report by Phebean Swill

https://youtu.be/lEYjxDZRg2k

President Ernest Koroma address

https://youtu.be/T1qFRV71GIM

FREETOWN! Can we say "YES" to FREEDOM?>>>

https://youtu.be/kKBTZcc3Tjw

FREETOWN SLUMS : My post 16 May 2016

http://paps1btinternet.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/freetown-slums-how-must-this-problem-be.html?m=1

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AFRICA RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Understanding Africa Today

https://www.africaresearchinstitute.org/newsite

Flooding in Freetown: a failure of planning?

06 Nov 2015

According to Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Freetown is home to at least 61 informal settlements, many of which are perched on the last vestiges of land before the sea. Their names evoke this proximity to water: Kroo Bay, Susan’s Bay, Magazine Wharf and Queen Elizabeth II Quay.

Susan’s Bay. Picture by Charles and Petra Wirrell

Adjacent to a number of these communities is the orderly, grid-like formation of the central business district. Planned by the British during the colonial period, it remains the city’s hub for both formal and informal trade. Rising behind the congested centre into the hills from which the country derived its name are an increasing number of housing developments encroaching (illegally) further into the Peninsular Forest. “People are building everywhere and anywhere with impunity,” remarked Dr Sama Monde, Director of Conservation Development Services in Sierra Leone, in conversation with ARI; “those who can afford do so, in spite of regulations”.

The forest is disappearing at an alarming rate and the impact on the city is becoming increasingly apparent, and significant.

Flooding

Freetown may be one of Africa’s more picturesque cities but it is also one of its wettest. In September 2015 flooding on an unprecedented scale killed at least seven people and rendered several thousand homeless. The Wilberforce and Signal Hill areas of the city were affected for the first time in living memory.

Exceptional in their severity and extent the floods may have been, but they were not “unexpected”, as President Koroma suggested when visiting victims at the National Stadium. Increasingly frequent deluges disproportionately affect those living in informal settlements. Kroo Bay, one of the largest coastal slums with an estimated population of 6,000, has flooded every year since 2008. Despite promises from the government that action would be taken, little has been done to tackle the root causes of the problem.

Poor planning

Freetown’s population is now over one million, a tenfold increase since independence in 1961. During the 1990s, many fled towards the capital as civil war engulfed the country. There they began to build on pockets of land previously unused for housing – and the majority stayed. The city extended outwards to accommodate this influx, but it did not do so with any urban strategy or plan in place. Dr Joe Doherty, a geographer at the University of St Andrews, notes “spontaneous expansions are the order of the day. Everyone goes about putting structures virtually anywhere without proper coordination and planning”.

The 2004 Local Government Act placed responsibility for urban planning with local authorities; in the case of Western Area, Freetown City Council (FCC). However, FCC lacks the manpower and technical resources to design and implement an urban development plan. Efforts to “build capacity” have occurred, most notably with the EU funded Freetown Development Plan, but progress is slow. Dr Joseph Macarthy of Njala University, who was a consultant on the EU project, told ARI that within the council there is “a huge lack of understanding of the role they are expected to play in urban planning and its role, more generally, in the effective management of a city”.

Linked to the poor urban planning process is a chronic shortage of affordable housing and land in the capital. Recent estimates suggest a housing deficit of 166,000 that could grow to 280,000 in the next 15 years. Regarded positively, this could provide as an opportunity to create jobs in the local economy – but associated challenges and dangers abound. Houses needed to be built “on grid” with access to basic services such as water and electricity. This process, as the experiences of Nairobi and Accra show, is inherently and deeply political; land is in extremely short supply; and solutions must be found in consultation with local communities.

Informal settlements may fall short when it comes to design, legal status and comfort but they generally tick many boxes that are critically important for inhabitants. They are well located in relation to economic and transport hubs, provide space for home-based economic activities, possess longstanding community support systems and are affordable. Forced relocation is therefore disruptive at many levels. This is not to say that slums provide acceptable living conditions; rather that slum communities exist where they are for a reason. Understanding this is vital if efforts to improve the lot of inhabitants are to be successful.

Part of the Government of Sierra Leone’s response to the most recent floods – forcibly evicting a slum community in Crab Town and moving the residents to an area on the outskirts of the city – demonstrates a deep-seated failure to understand these dynamics. Macarthy believes “it is not a response based on evidence; it has more to do with political point scoring”. A communiqué signed by the Federation of Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP) and the Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA) in Sierra Leone expressed similar sentiment, condemning the “counter-productive demolitions and forced evictions against our communities in cities across Africa”.

Improving the living conditions of “at risk” communities is vital, but the first step needs to be dialogue, not eviction. A new, more inclusive, approach to urban planning is needed, as is closer collaboration between – and within – government departments. The Ministry of Land, Country Planning and Environment (MLCPE) operates in silos at present, with each component – land, country planning and environment – focused on its own, sometimes conflicting, agenda.

Managing waste

In 2012 The Economist wrote “there is little excuse for drifts of rubbish in a city [Freetown] with massive underemployed manpower”. Unfortunately and unnecessarily, this remains the reality today. Youth unemployment is estimated at over 60%. In 2013, a 20 year contract was signed with MASADA Energy to carry out waste management in the city, but waste still piles up on the streets. Some question the capability of MASADA. Dr Monde views waste management as an issue that has been “politicised and very poorly handled”.

The waste issue is multi-faceted. Freetown only has two dumpsites, at Kissy and King Tom, both of which are at capacity and located in residential areas. The Freetown Development Plan recommended the sites be closed in 2009, as they posed significant health risks to communities, and identified new dumps outside the city. These recommendations have not yet been acted upon. Even if waste collection improves, the question of where to dispose of it remains unresolved.

King Tom dump. Picture by Saskia Marijnissen, UNDP 2013

The effect of insufficient drainage provisions in new infrastructure projects such as the refurbishment of Wilkinson Road is exacerbated by the abundance of waste. Drains are perennially blocked by natural and man-made waste. Responsibility for cleaning of the drains is an area of much political debate and little action. MASADA, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, FCC and MLCPE have all claimed that it falls outside their purview.

During heavy rainfall blocked drains deposit huge amounts of debris – including medical and other perilously unhygienic waste material – in the city’s coastal slums. So flooding brings not only the immediate risk of death and loss of property but also heightened risk of disease. Life expectancy in Kroo Town is just 35: ten years below the national average.

The shore next to Mabella is littered with trash, and untreated sewage flows into the ocean, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Picture by Holly Pickett

A changing climate

Sierra Leone’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been vocal in recognising the effects that deforestation of the Western Peninsula is having on the city. Soil erosion is just one of the major issues. No longer afforded protection by a canopy of trees, exposed soil is being carried off the hills and down into the city during heavy rainfalls. In September 2015, EPA deputy director Mohamed Bah also commented that“irresponsible actions taken on the hills will affect the city greatly…they impact on its micro-climate”. Many of the houses for which trees are being cut down are built for the country’s elite, suggesting that political will for change may be hard to galvanise. According to Bah, “until we stop dumping waste into drainages, until we stop clearing the trees, we will always face severe consequences of climate change”.

Picture by Joerg Boethling for Welthungerhilfe

Sierra Leone ranks 138 out of 172 in the World Risk Index of countries prone to natural disasters. And research by the World Banksuggests that drier dry seasons and wetter wet seasons are only likely to increase in frequency in coastal cities. This is not good news for Freetown. Already the frequent flooding of August and September gives way to severe water shortages in March. In informal settlements, water pipes are cut as people desperately seek access to this basic service while those who can afford it ‘negotiate’ with Guma Valley, the main water company, to have water delivered to tanks. A seasonal threefold escalation in price is not uncommon.

Approaching the future

In 2008, Mary Mye-Kamara, then Director of Disaster Management within the Sierra Leonean government, stated that “massive rural to urban migration in recent years, deforestation and poor drainage makes the city’s coastal communities most vulnerable”. Seven years on questions need to be asked about what is being learnt – and done – by the government for the urban majority.

Developing a long-term plan for the city that is climate-sensitive, addresses waste disposal, appropriately financed and designed in consultation with residents of informal communities should be a priority. The current ad-hoc approach is utterly failing the poorest members of society. “Government recognition of the importance of urban planning is vital. It could acknowledge this by spending more on educating a future generation of Sierra Leone planners,” says Joseph Macarthy (who is himself involved in efforts to teach the subject at Njala University in Freetown).

In the short term, efforts to resolve political wrangling over unblocking drains, to implement and uphold a moratorium on building in the Peninsula forest and to improve weather forecasting could help to protect life and property for those who have little to begin with. Forced evictions, on the other hand, will only foster community resentment and make the long-term planning process more difficult.

Jamie Hitchen is a Policy Researcher at Africa Research Institute.