Introduction

Flooding is a disaster that has been affecting nations of the world. Freetown the Capital of Sierra Leone has been normalized to this feat. The city is built with a British-colonial-style structure with its narrow roads and shallow drainages. Also, the city is surrounded by a peninsula with rich mountainous plateaus and forests.

What is flooding?

Flooding is a natural disaster that occurs by torrential downpours of rains. It’s when the water overshadows drylands. This disaster sometimes results in the loss of lives and properties.

Freetown, a continual abode for flooding.

We are yet into another rainy season, and the capital city experiences this occurrence on a seasonal basis. Predominantly during this half-yearly rainy period (six months). Slum areas like Kroo Bay, Thompson Bay, Culvert etc are the most affected victims of flooding.

Causes of Flooding in the capital city

Flooding has causes, and all are unfavourable to our society; working against the existence of lives and properties.

• Building houses in water log areas

Due to the rapid growth in the population of the city, many people relocated from their provisional locations to the main capital, seeking greener pastures. They’re left with little or no option but to put up makeshifts or permanent structures in riverine areas; those areas are less economical to rent. So they therefore did by banking the water passage, leaving a little space for it to flow.

• Shallow-deep and Stockading drainages

Most drainage in the city is shallow, as a cause of thunderous rains they eventually get filled and take over streets and communities. Dumping waste materials in the drainage is another significant cause of flooding. The limited trash cans to keep the city clean can cause flooding. House dwellers in houses away from the garbage disposal most time dump the waste in the drainage, and this will cause flooding to occur in the cause of rains.

• Hewing down of trees

Environmental degradation by cutting down logs of trees for antique work without replanting others, to replenish the void, is bound to cause flooding in various communities prone to flooding in the city.

Effect of flooding

Below are adverse dangers of flooding to human health and the environment.

• It causes loss of lives

• Destroy value documents and properties

• It causes the demolition of infrastructure properties

• Pollute water and cause sicknesses

Prevention and solutions to secure lives and properties

Ways to prevent and proffer solutions to help preserve lives and properties.

• Expansion of roads and drainage

with a modern-day structure of roads, eroding the Colonial-type structure with widely deep and stretched drainages can help to prevent flooding in the city.

• Building garbage stations

The city council should ensure the building of garbage stations in areas of the city to avoid the constant depositing of waste in drainages.

• Policy restricting the prohibition of cutting down of trees

Policymakers should ensure implementation of a policy forbidding people from illegal or frequent cutting down of trees.

Conclusion

Safety is paramount for all. Flooding shouldn’t be commonplace in society. Government bodies, city councils, stakeholders and community heads should be fusion in raising the awareness to embrace change. This should be a joint force if ever to combat this situation. They should transcend positive messages to their various localities to help protect a habitable environment