The old quarry at Mamba Ridge, Moyiba community, has seen the death of several young people. The first victim was a youth of 35 who drowned trying to retrieve a football. The old stone mine has a massive crater where fresh water from the rock fills the pit. Many young people used to go and play football in the field and swim in the pond, which has turned into ‘quick sand’ and very dangerous.
Meanwhile, the soil erosion from the hills has washed silt into the pit. Anybody who enters the water finds it very difficult to come out. They get stuck in the silt and sink, causing them to drown. Similarly, others have died there. Albert Sandy, a resident near the old stone mine who is the vice chairman of the Police Partnership Board and elder of the community, explained the origin of the slum settlement.
“This quarry was established by government in the 1950s to mine granite rocks to construct roads and important buildings in the city. Later, a foreign company called Wahmann/Abu, which constructed the Freetown Waterloo highway and the Bo/Kenema highway, mined rocks here for their construction work. Leocem leased it from government and mined rocks to make cement. The last company to operate from this mine was called Aggregate.”
He went on to explain that the old stone mine was a remote place where snakes, monkeys, baboons, and other wild animals lived. “The ironstone dust was used by Leocem and mixed with imported clinker to produce cement. We even sieved it and used it to plaster our houses,” Sandy revealed. He furthered, “The company that mined the rock here drilled through it and planted the dynamite; before blasting it, (but) they will make radio announcements to warn the nearby residents.”
He said the stone mining was stopped when a massive water reservoir was discovered under the mine, and a baby was killed in a freak accident. “The water was enough to flood the whole east end of the city. So the company operating here at the time decided to seal the pit with water cement and move to mine the upper level. Also, one day, when they blasted the rock, a stone flew and killed a new born baby lying on her bed in the nearby settlement.”
The community elder said after the war, the settlement grew due to massive urbanisation. The population increase in the city forced many people to settle close to the mine. “Before, when the mine was in operation, the roads were good and the place secure; but now, we lack good roads, portable drinking water, health centre and school. The school here is poorly furnished as children even sit on the floor. Also, a pregnant woman fell recently and now she is dead. With a good health facility nearby she could have been saved,” he stated.
“When the accidents in the pit were increasing, the police, military and chiefs came here and gave us rules. Now, no 15-year-old child is allowed to fetch water from the pit. We also do not allow people to swim or wash clothes there. We can only fetch water there for domestic chores as it is not drinkable.”
He said the water in the abandoned mine used to be very deep but they created a gutter for the excess water to run downhill. Meanwhile, looking at the old mine many people have built houses and settled very close to it. Will the massive rock crumble from under those settling on top of it or will the massive reservoir gush forth and swamp the communities? Only time will tell.
By David Thoronka