Sierra Leone: Freetown City Council Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyer and Entourage visited Landslide Disaster Victims of Portee Community East of the Capital City
By Abdul Rahman Bangura–
NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- Freetown City Council (FCC), vanguard by the city Mayor – Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, made a visit to the victims of a landslide disaster that occurred in Portee, East end of Freetown on August 26th, 2020. Supposedly, the disaster, came off consequently, the indiscriminate building of properties on a weakened slope and in a waterway, affected thirteen households and one hundred and thirty people.
In furtherance, the orderlies constituted the Deputy Mayor of the Freetown Municipality – Councillor Osman T. Koroma, Stella Smith – Head of Social Services Department, Councilor Fatmata Williams of Ward 409, Councilor Hannah Mary Jaiah of Ward 413, Councilor Agnes Marah of Ward 407 and Councilor Sheku Turay of Ward 408 engross the victims to know how they have been surviving and pari passu shearing same with the victims especially, at this material time; when the Novel Coronavirus is inflicting economic hardship in Sierra and the world at large.
In addendum, the Freetown City Council (FCC) made to each household, a donation of Le1,000,000 ($100), a bag of rice, a bucket and packs of Maggi from the rare resources usable to the FCC hence, its ineptitude to roll out its new property rate regime. In excursus, the FCC proceeds to prod denizens to stop building properties in an unsafe locations, as they similarly persist to organize for the devolution of land use planning and building permit issuance from the Ministry of Lands to the local councils in congruence with the Local Government Act of 2004 and under the oversight of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
In summation, the dearth of enforcement of building permits within the city and the granting of building permits in threat prone sites, starts again to endanger the lives and properties in the city.
“We can work together to improve our city with land use planning and an effective, environmentally sensitive building permit regime” Mayor Sawyerr asserted.
For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports, Africa Correspondent
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