6/12/2024
Yesterday it was my pleasure to meet with a delegation from the World Bank, headed by Franz Drees-Gross, West Africa Regional Director for Infrastructure. With the delegation, which included Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist Francis Samson Nkoka and PIU Lead Anthony Koroma, we visited two sites of initiatives funded by the World Bank Resilient Urban Sierra Leone Project (RUSLP).
RUSLP supported initiatives include #FreetownTheTreeTown, the review of the Freetown structure plan and the upgrade of 3 informal settlements (Moyiba, Coconut Farm and Portee Rokupr) in the east of Freetown. Across the 3 informal settlements FCC will construct 3.7km of roads and 7.72km of drainage, will install 355 streetlights and 44 water points and will also provide sanitation facilities, steps and walkways to improve access in these vulnerable communities.
Yesterday we visited Moyiba community to see first-hand the challenges in that informal settlement and to see how the upgrade interventions will transform the community and the lives of its residents.
We also visited Tower Hill, Guma Compound on Wesley Street where 1,000 trees were planted with funding from RUSLP. It was inspiring to listen to Zakiatu, a young women who works for FEDURP, the CBO that manages catchment 3 where 13,700 trees have been planted, including the trees in the Tower Hill Guma Compound. Zakiatu explained to the delegation how the digital tracking of our trees is done as she showed us trees that were planted in 2021 and are now over 3 meters high!
The site visit which started with us gathering at 7am, was followed by a two hour meeting the office. It was a hectic but very constructive day that ended with the World Bank delegation expressing their appreciation for the commitment of the FCC team in delivering these World Bank funded Transform Freetown – Transforming Lives initiatives.
