Flooding in Freetown, Sierra Leone – The way forward
By
Ing. ALPHA BADAMASI SAVAGE; FSLIE

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ing. Alpha Badamasi Savage is a civil engineer with specialty in Highways, Traffic and Transportation Engineering. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone in 1977 and a Master of Science Degree in Highways and Transportation Engineering from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A in 1980. He is a Fellow of the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers ( SLIE) and the current President; he is also Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Assistant to the Deputy Vice Chancellor at Fourah Bay College (FBC).
Email Addresses : savagebadamasi@yahoo.com and badamasi.savage@usl.edu.sl

ABSTRACT

Sierra Leone ranks 138 out of 172 in the World Index of Countries prone to natural disasters. Research by the World Bank suggests that drier dry seasons and wetter wet seasons are only likely to increase in frequency in Coastal cities; this ominous prediction came to pass on September 16th 2015 when Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, was hit by unprecedented floods caused by torrential rainfall of 600 mm in only 5 hours; the normal average annual rainfall for Freetown is about 2,945 mm and the total for the wettest month, August, averages about 790 mm.

This paper is based on the experiences and effects of those devastating floods to highlight the challenges facing city planners, why and where it happened and lessons learned. The Government’s state of preparedness and resilience for such disasters as well as the role of volunteers in communities is also discussed. Recommendations of flood risk management approaches using best practices on flood protection, prevention and mitigation for Freetown is presented.

Key Words: Flood, preparedness, resilience, risk management, mitigation