Born some 75 years ago in the Northern part of Sierra Leone, Pa Alimamy Kargbo came to Freetown to seek a better life, but many reasons prevented him from making it through the corridors of formal education.
As a result, he did not lose hope but decided to settle as a businessman and start a family down at Kroobay.
Pa Alimamy Kargbo (Kabempa- meaning to make) now the local Chief of Kroobay community explained how over the years he had enjoyed life down at the slum community, which in recent times had experienced many challenges with flooding being top on the list.
He frowned at the word “slum community”, and was quick to say that Kroobay is not a slum, but society wants to call it that way, because they believe they are more comfortable up in the city.
In a very relaxed mood, seating in his small veranda at his own house, the local head spoke of good times, before the challenges started to show, noting that during his time spent, he has raised and educated his children, and asked “Where should I go at this tenth hour after 45 years of life in Kroobay, and some of my people relocated to six mile recently have started coming back, as a result of harsh conditions, they can’t cope?”
He furthered that population growth as well as the breaking of the former bridge and diversion of drainages is one of the reasons responsible for flooding, coupled with the huge amount of debris which flows from up city down to the community.
Pa Kargbo added that about 15 years now after Metchem constructed the road linking Lightfoot Boston Street and Krootown road, was the time the community started experiencing flooding, but not to the magnitude of what happened in September 2015.
Questioned about his people also responsible for the pile of debris that causes blockage of drainages, the local head answered in the affirmative that because Government is not serious on constructing low cost housing for its citizenry, population in the community has grown to over 15,000,and residents are using the main drainage as a dump site.
Pa Alimamy Kargbo noted that he is also aware that climate change is in the air, but called on Government and its partners to hang heads together to put an end to flooding in Kroobay and other areas classed as disaster prone communities.
He said the culvert constructed by Metchem is too low and small to handle the passage of the huge pile of debris flowing from the main gutter to the sea; therefore it would be wise that the Ministry of Works and the SLRA rethink and construct a better bridge, high enough with retaining walls to handle the debris like it used to be in the early days.
Speaking to Awoko, a resident Musa Kamara also complained that since the original bridge was demolished and drainages reconstructed on the wrong side of the road, residents had faced the challenge of huge debris on the main gutter and blocked drainages, causing unrest to the community during the rains.
“To salvage the situation, there is need for reconstruction of the existing culvert used as bridge, including the redirection of the drainages to its original position” Musa stated.
He maintained that every year the community in collaboration with the Councillor in the community, embark on massive cleaning of drainages, but because of the poor construction of the culvert and drainages, the cleaning does not hold and described the exercise as wasted effort.
By Ade Campbell
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