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See why Sierra Leone's Freetown is a ticking time bomb


Lost Freetown – Sierra Leone, 2009 – The expansion of this City has lead to it being on the brink of environmental and social disaster, and there appears to be no relief.

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Sierra Leone is booming. In capital Freetown the population is rising and new homes spring up daily. But, like the 1950s sewage pipes, the city is creaking under the weight. How long before Freetown cracks?

A land of wooded plains and white beaches, Sierra Leone was known as a pearl in the African crown. But the brutal civil war damaged the country’s rural economy and displaced farming families. Now Freetown is expanding rapidly, but few see this as cause for celebration. ‘Yeah we have come a long way’, says OLU Gorden, a Journalist here. ‘But there has been so much sacrifice for so little ground gained’. In the slums of Kroo Bay in Freetown, children pick their way across rivers of sewage on their way to school. ‘You see children holding onto the filth for support as they climb through’, says Lynette Pamer, a doctor who works in the area. ‘There’s malnutrition because of diarrhoea in the under 5s, malaria, worms. They are all affected’. The city’s two dumps are badly located, admits John Kamara of the Ministry of Lands: ‘They are within the city, in water bodies, close to the sea.’. Freetown is engulfed in a tide of pollution that is spreading to the surrounding countryside. ‘It’s becoming an environmental disaster’, says one Sierra Leone commentator. ‘In a few years we will see this disaster come to pass’.

Produced by Brightstar Media. Ref – 4292

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50 Responses

  1. Get foundations that plant trees to come in to re-plant the trees lost! It’s a shame to see a beautiful land destroyed!

  2. This is a total disgrace, I have never seen anything good about this country, unbelievable. Good luck trying to be a president in Sierra Leone. I rather live in Haiti than Sierra Leone.

  3. Very harsh life, what amazing people to face this hardship everyday , words fail me 🤦🏻‍♀️

  4. we keep blaming Government but as a person what have u done to secure your own life…. sierra leone is not the worst place

  5. It shocks me 3rd world countries dont use outhouses… and when they get full they slide the outhouse from over the hole and burn it. Pouring diesel into the waste make the burning faster, but lets just keep it simple. If I know western government they will say its a multi billion dollar operation that needs chemical plants and waste disposal plants that would be in ruins in 2 years. Just teach them simple things they could handle.

  6. OMG I WAN NA JUST CHOKE WHEN I LOOK AT THE WATER THE SEWAGE HAS TO GET UNDER CONTROL MAKE SURE EVERYONE IN THE COMMUNITY GATHERS THE TRASH TO BURN IT IT CAN ONLY GET WORSE IF YOU DONT DO SOMETHING NOW

  7. This documentary predicted the tragic August 2017 landslide. If only the authorities had clamped down on the building of houses on the hillside.

  8. The government invest in armination neglecting human life all bullshirt Africa leaders are all bullshirt bulge of fool calling their self leadeer.

  9. John Hawkins came with the slave ship of Jesus of Lubech and broke this civilization. Then establishing the triangle slave trade of bringing africans to the Caribbean, then bringing sugar and molasses to mainland North America to make Rum, which then the Rum was brought back to Africa along with white prostitutes to the chiefs And kings for more African captives. And now today the blood diamonds and other resources being smuggled out of the country by the so-called UN peace keepers.

  10. The people of Sierra Leone just voted, sanitation and environmental issues are the least of their concerns. My people voted based on tribalism, nepotism, and sentiment.

  11. This is what happened when people don’t like them self , My God save us and your generation Sad life for your Children 😭

  12. Come on mr UNICEF….the government is so corrupt that they people will never let the people or the continent benefit from any of its resources…period.

  13. I’m glad to announce that the first national cleaning already took place under the new government. I’m hoping that things get better soon.

  14. "Financial attraction seems to outweigh any modicum of sensibleness, people doing things properly"…DAMN!! soo true

  15. WITH all the toilets going into that water no wonder cholera is so prominent over there. THAT is so gross and you have kids playing in that!! NO wonder kids do not live that long over there!

  16. The Lebanese control the country? Run them, vote them out! Clean up your city for the future of your children and people’s

  17. Great Spirit, Thy Will be done for waste energy production all over the Earth. Great Spirit, please if it is Thy Will let waste energy production begin.

  18. Europe bullied their way in and have destroyed many countries by sucking Africa dry. I pray for my people to survive, we have made it this far and we here. This is why Trump called it a shit hole. The African government need to be ashamed of themselves!!!!

  19. More disaster is on the way if our mindset doesn’t change, especially now that the Chinese are physically taking our soil to China. The black man’s mentality is as primitive as can be, and we hate to be corrected.

  20. you people go back to your villages. Is better to stay healthy than leaving in a place like that.

  21. IM SURE ITS DIFFICULT WITH SANITATION WITH THE HOUSES BEING SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER I MEAN IF YOU CANT CONTROL SEWAGE AND TAKE CARE OF THE FORESTS THE WHOLE LAND WILL BE RUINED

  22. If this doesnt prove the point that the Africans are a mentally retarted people then nothing will. Whether American or not, they dont give a shit about their living conditions or their impact on the area around them. The inner cities in America and the ghettos are full of proof that they dont give a fuck about how they live….and long as they have fly clothes and a hoopty or whatever they call their ghetto wheels nowadays. Its sickening to see how they destroyed what was a nice area of Washington Square in Indianapolis and they do it no matter where they live. No pride at all as a people.

  23. Talk about a S-hole, and some people want Donald Trump to apologize. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Sierra Leonean .

  24. If these lazy bastards spent as much time cleaning up their lands as they do slacking off, they mite gain some pride, self-respect, and dignity. Who gives you the right to pollute the lands that you temporarily reside on? Your ancestors are screaming in their graves!

  25. Many positive and not so positive comments on here..Sierra Leone gained its Independence in 1962, just 60 or so years ago, before this time it was run by the British..Freetown’s design was much like London in that it had very small streets and colonial with no foresight that it’ll grow into the crowded metropolis it is today. The war pushed the majority of people from tye provinces into the city who ended up overpopulating the slums and bays whicj are unplanned and unsanitary hubs all around the city..Rural Urban migration is also a factor..And for those of u commenting this was how Europe and many other countries were in the early 1900s , read a book .Dickens Londom wasn’t unlike this.The problem with Sierra Leone and is the corruption in Government, the lack of will and foresight of the leaders to genuinely wanna change their peoples lives..it’s a shame..

  26. Serious as if the leaders are dead or they have better place to leave so they dont care.

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