By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
The head of Charlotte, Catherine Harding, has said as a result of the mudslide and flooding that claimed the lives of over 300 people in Freetown, Sierra Leone August 14th, the only bridge at the entrance of Charlotte village was seriously affected. The bridge now looks like a death trap for pedestrians and motorist.
Madam Harding told Groove 106FM in an interview in her Regent Village on Thursday August 24th that all the mud that was holding the bridge were on August 14th washed away by the torrential rains.
She said nobody has died as a result of the mudslide and flooding in the Western Area, but the bridge that was constructed for them by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) was seriously damaged, preventing vehicles from entering the village.
Harding, in her late 50s, said that during and after the flooding the people who were living in the east and west sides of the village were totally disconnected, adding that no one goes the other side of the village because the water divided them.
“Even when the journalists came to interview people in the village after the incident, I was unable to talk to them because they could not access me. I was seeing them at a distance and they were seeing me but we could not to talk to each other because we were barricaded by the flooding,” she noted.
She revealed that the retaining wall that was constructed to prevent the water from entering the mainland of the village collapsed also during the flooding.
“Charlotte, which is situated in the Western Area Rural District, is an historical village. The famous Annie Walsh Secondary School in Freetown started here with eight students. This village has once suffered from a mudslide in 1945 causing many people to abandon it and seek a safer environment in Freetown and other places,” she said.
Madam Harding said the flooding was not caused by the cutting of trees as many people have been rumoring; rather, it was a natural disaster, claiming that they have not been cutting trees to burn charcoal but get their money from the rearing of pigs and backyard gardening.
She revealed that there are about one hundred and seventy (170) inhabitants in Charlotte village but not 50 as many reporters claimed.
Among their challenges, Madam Harding, said they have no pure drinking water facility, electricity, bad road network, community center and secondary school.
