Under Environmental Management by the Mayor and FCC team is Clearing & Construction of Drainages, Footbridges and Flooding Mitigation activities in flood-prone areas in Freetown through collaboration with the Republic of Sierra Leone Army and Communities.

The Mayor and FCC constructed drainages, trained and engaged – 200 youths (50 female and 150 male) with 64 Sub-contractors and administrative job.

As FCC commenced Construction of additional drainage in February 2021 with funding from the Japanese Government and UNOPS as the implementing partner. 150 meters of open drainage at Caulker Street, 100 meters open drainage and 12 meters cross drain culvert at Melon Street, 120 meters of open drainage, Culvert at Bottom Oku and 180 meters open drainage at Congo Water Wellington Old Road.

Abnormally heavy rainfall is one of the impacts of climate change. With years of deforestation, poor drainage systems and poor sanitation, this heavy rainfall made flooding a common hazard in Freetown. For the third consecutive year, FCC successfully reduced the risk of major flooding incidents in Freetown by excavating garbage and silt from critical drains, gutters, culverts and waterways.

2020 flood mitigation activities were implemented in two phases in collaboration with RSLAF and community volunteers:

Some of the Impact of Flood Mitigation Activities undertaken in 2020 by Mayor and FCC spread through below

  • 21 wards
  • 92 Flash flood points
  • 38 Waterways cleared
  • 21 Bridges cleared
  • 50 Culverts desilted
  • 10.65k Meters of gutter excavate

The construction of 1,300m of drainage directly benefit nine communities in the upper catchment areas in Freetown.

Annual losses in Freetown caused by floods, average US$2.5 million a year. In 2018, flood mitigation work covered 23 of the 48wards with the following results:

39 waterways cleaned -20 bridges cleaned – 35 culverts desilted – 6240 meters of gutters excavated. For the first time in a decade, no rainy season flooding was experienced in many communities, including Kroo Bay in 365 days I year.

A newly constructed footbridge was commissioned at Jalloh Terrace, a hard-to-reach community in Wellington. The previous makeshift structure posed great risk to the community and the construction of the new bridge was part of the FCC Disaster Resilience Project. This was one of the Disaster Risk Reduction interventions in 7 communities funded by Irish Aid and implemented by UNOPS.

Gutters along Kissy Road were cleared of silt and garbage, as part of the 2019 Flood Mitigation Project.

The drainage construction project follows more than 15 other drainage projects implemented by FCC in 2019 and 2020 which have reduced flooding in various communities over the period.

FCC is asking our residents to join then in an effort to Transform Freetown by using established waste collection services and reporting anyone dumping garbage in gutters or waterways by calling us on 8244.