FCC Media: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 12 June 2024:
Between March to April this year, Freetown City Council identified 72 flooding flashpoints across the city.
To improve community resilience and reduce the risks of flooding in these sites, FCC is collaborating with residents in those communities to remove silt and garbage build-ups that affect drainage.
FCC has completed flood mitigation activities in 24 of the 72 identified flashpoints including —Samba Gutter, Bright Street, Eastern Street, Murray Town Junction, Sir Samuel Lewis Road, Sanders Street, Wilkinson Road, Krootown Road, Tengbeh Town, Robert Street, Sengbe Pieh Bridge, Blackhall Road by Keke Garage, Texaco, Portee, Kissy Road by Kennedy Street, Fourah Bay Road by Kennedy Street, Upgun by Kissy Road Cemetery, Sarolla Old and New Road, Kroobay, Taylor Street Kissy, Congo Town, Lumley Amadu Lane Carnal and Ojuku Junction at Allen Town.
To ensure community ownership of the exercise, through our councillors, FCC engaged an average of 50 youth on a daily basis to work on cleaning gutters and waterways in the identified hotspot locations.
Over the next three weeks, FCC will continue the exercise with an estimated additional 1300 youth flooding flashpoints including: Sani Abacha Street, Model Junction, Fourah Bay Road by Bishop Johnson Memorial School, Patton Street, Calaba Town/Mayekineh, Phillip Street, Ashobi Corner, Wellington Old Road by Water Street and Regent Road-Lumley.
FCC is undertaking this phase of its 2024 flood mitigation activities with funding support from the World Bank and GOAL Sierra Leone. A second phase of flood mitigation activities is scheduled to commence in late July.
Supervised by the FCC Climate Action & Disaster Management and the FCC Sanitation Committees and implemented by the FCC Disaster Risk Management Unit, the flood mitigation activities reduce the immediate risk of flooding and consequent loss of property.
FCC is nonetheless aware that sustainable flooding risk reduction requires waste management solutions for hard-to-reach communities in the hillsides around Freetown; effective restrictions on deforestation to prevent silt run-offs from the mountains; behavior change incentives and enforcement for Freetown residents and much more.
FCC is committed to directly executing or indirectly supporting all such efforts including collaborating with SLRA and the Ministry of Environment. FCC’s Sanitation Bylaws have been strengthened and are currently progressing through the requisite legislation process.
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