Consequences

I have been under the weather over the last fortnight or so, which partly explains why Tell Fren Tru has been silent. Talking about weather, Sierra Leone and its capital, Freetown, has also been, more explicitly, under the weather too. Last Wednesday, in just four hours, enough rain was dumped on the capital to nearly drown it. According to reports, much of the low lying land was under water and hundreds of dwellings were swept away, leaving thousands homeless. In the event, it was a lucky break that casualties amounted to just seven dead.

Freetown is capital to one of the poorest countries in the world and could ill-afford another onslaught following so close on the heels of an Ebola epidemic from which it still has to recover. And then this. But, the city is, in some ways, a victim of its geography, sitting where it does, exposed to the worst excesses of a turbulent Atlantic ocean. Those excesses are most evident during the monsoon season that falls between May and October, the wettest months being July, August and September. The meteorologists say that during the season, moist air from the south Atlantic blows on to the land, dousing the Sierra Leone peninsula with more than 3000 mm of rain every year, making Freetown one of the world’s wettest capitals. 

Freetown’s other geographic disadvantage comes from the way it lies on a strip of land, squeezed between a shoreline in front and a range of mountains behind.  So, when the rain falls, it cascades down in torrents of muddy water that washes over the town. At first glance, this combination would appear to provide the perfect recipe for disaster. But disasters of this kind are unheard of. Why is this so? 

Before we answer the question, let’s go back to the climate gurus and what they have to say about global climate trends. They tell us that global temperatures are set to increase over the next 50 to 70 years to a broiling 2˚C or more, if we are not mindful. That, we are warned, would probably be irreversible. For Sierra Leone itself, temperatures have, since 1960, increased by 0.8˚C, and are projected to rise by 1.0 to 2.6˚C by the 2060’s, and by 1.5 to 4.6˚C by the 2090’s. Meanwhile, recorded rainfall has gone in the opposite direction, decreasing significantly although it is not clear whether this was a trend, since some years were relatively wet whilst others were dryer. Anyway, these are all part of the mix that gives climate-watchers sleepless nights.

And, for the world at large, the prediction similarly, is that a rise in global temperatures of about 1.5 to 4.5⁰C will occur and will be accompanied by various other climate-related disruptive events. In Sierra Leone, there is evidence that at least one of these consequences might be occurring already: One of its outlying islands, Bonthe, is showing signs of becoming inundated (Bonthe Island Is Sinking). The recent rainstorm over Freetown was another.  Perhaps the flooding might not have occurred if the city’s sentinel mountains had been able to soak up the rain that fell. But they could not, simply because the vegetation that used to hold the ground together and absorb the water had been stripped by unregulated and illegal clearing for the building of homes.

So, in retribution for this act of environmental vandalism, 50 years after the stripping of the mountain began, the rain came down and swept away some of those illegal structures in a tide that flooded streets and demolished coastal shanty towns as well. 

And thereby we find ourselves where we are today.

Tell Fren Tru