The top management of Freetown Terminal Limited, a subsidiary of Bollore Africa Logistics, has told a cross section of visiting Parliamentarians that US$36 million has so far been invested to improve the Freetown ports.
The Members of Parliament (MP’s) who were drawn from the parliamentary committees on Transport, Labour, Privatization and Environment were invited on a conducted tour of the newly improved Ports facilities.
The General Manager of Freetown Terminal, Marc Gerard, told the MP’s that since Bollore Africa Logistics signed an agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone, the company has focused its resources and investments on improving the various facilities at the ports to meet international standards.
He maintained that the current investment of over US$36 million has exceeded the initial commitments of US$34 million, which include US$10 million dollars investment to improve the civil works in the terminal yard to create more space for containers and cargo handling, while improving on the efficiency and productivity of the ports.
He also explained that they also invested US$ 7.7 million to procure two giant mobile harbour cranes with a lifting capacity of 100 tons which is used to offload and load containers from vessels more efficiently; US$ 4.5 million invested on nine reach stackers to lift 45 tons of full containers for imports and exports; US$2 million invested on 14 tug masters to transfer containers from vessels to the yard; US$ 920,000 invested on three heavy forklifts to handle general cargoes and three front end loaders for handling empty containers.
“With all these investments, we are no longer considered by shipping lines as a secondary port,” Gerard said. Since 2011, the number of calls at the port has increased considerably from 60,000 to 90,000 Twenty feet Equivalent Unit (TEU) of containers per year, noting that the TEU volumes slightly dropped to 80,000 due to the Ebola outbreak, which prevented few shipping lines from using the Port facilities.
He said the port can now accommodate up to 150,000 TEU. He told MPs that the port terminal has generally been recognized internationally, and has over the years attracted more top ranking shipping lines like the world’s largest Maersk Line; Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which is the world’s second largest shipping line; CMA-CGM, the world’s largest shipping line, among others.
He assured MPs that the company is committed to developing the economy of Sierra Leone. He noted that prior to the Ebola outbreak, the terminal has attracted many international shipping lines which use the ports and its facilities to either deliver or load cargoes for exports to several destinations around the world.
He said the company has provided over five hundred million Leones to various government ministries, hospitals, communities, humanitarian organizations and other international agencies through various interventions to help in the fight against the dreaded Ebola virus in the country.
On employment, the General Manager said the company has 340 permanent staff, amongst which include two Sierra Leonean managers who were promoted to replace former expatriate positions in 2015, while 2,400 workers from Leone Dock Labour Company (LDLC) are contracted every month for their services.
He pledged to stick by the commitment signed with the government of Sierra Leone and pledged to focus the company’s synergy on improving the ports for it to be the envy in the sub region.
In his remarks, Member of Parliament for Constituency 104, Alpha Tunde Lewalley, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Aviation, and who led the delegation, commended the management of Freetown Terminal for staying and for joining the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone.
He said improving the port to international standards will make Sierra Leone more open to international trade, noting that international competitiveness is a fundamental pillar in the current government’s development agenda known as the Agenda for Prosperity (AFP).
‘No Research on ebola’s effect on Salone chimps’
Ebola is responsible for the death of one third of the world’s Chimp and gorilla population states a report written by Ria Ghai for The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada
The report suggests that, “an estimated one third of the world’s gorillas and chimpanzees have been killed by ebola”
However, though the recent outbreak has a huge human death toll in the Mano River basin, its effect on our distant cousins (the chimps) could not be ascertained.
“There have not been any studies to show if any chimpanzee in the wild is being infected with ebola,” says Sofie.
Sofie Meilvang is the manager of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary located atop the hills of the dense Regent forest in Western Rural Freetown.
In an interview with Sofie at the Sanctuary she explained that because ebola mode of transmission among human is the same among chimps, that’s why they had to shut down the facility for five months and halt public visit to the Sanctuary.
The reason for such an action she said “is to protect the chimps from getting infected by someone who might have contacted the virus and went to visit.”
Sofie explained that since the start of the outbreak procedures have been put in place to unsure that the Sanctuary is ebola free. She ascertained that the Sanctuary is 100 percent ebola free.
The Chimpanzees were in the Sanctuary before the out break, they are thoroughly examined by a resident vet Dr. Jenny Jaffa. So far none of the chimps are sick or infected with ebola because we adhere to strict preventive procedures, she explained.
Speaking about ebola’s effect on Chimps, she said as of now non-could be ascertained because there is no research to show ebola’s effect on chimps in Sierra Leone.
However, another study published in the Journal of Science in 2006, suggested that about 5,000 gorillas were killed in Gabon and Congo by the Zaire strain of Ebola in 2002 and 2003.
Friday February 13, 2015