By Zoe Tabary
LONDON, Aug 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown must tackle deforestation, poor housing and decrepit drainage if it is to prevent the next disaster, its mayor said one year after a devastating mudslide killed an estimated 1,000 people and left thousands of others homeless.
Rapid urbanisation in the growing city is driving residents to claim “any trees and land they can find” to build homes, making landslides and flooding more likely in times of heavy rain, said Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki Sawyerr.
“Our city has no future if we don’t save the environment,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview on Monday. “And that’s not me being a tree-hugger. That’s being pragmatic.”
Originally big enough for 400,000 residents, Freetown has mushroomed since Sierra Leone won independence from Britain in 1961 and is now home to an estimated 2 million people.
