Obsolete Ferry, Weakened Economic Activities
By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Too much is happening with the collapsed of the Mabang Bridge; commuters complain, economic activities stifled, and Business people howl their indignation, as producers of vegetables and other crops as well as passengers along the Makoi, Mabang, Ribbi and Rotifunk axis, decry a rather obsolete ferry.
The Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) placed a ferry between the Ribbi Chiefdom, Moyamba District, southern Sierra Leone and the Koya Chiefdom, Port Loko District to improvised for the collapsed Mabang Bridge, but the ferry has itself become a nemesis engendering a seriously weakened economic activities in those areas.
Multiple residents in the area claimed during an interview with our Correspondent Saturday, August 5, 2017 in Mabang Village where they expressed their indignation, dissatisfaction and frustration over the Sierra Leone government and the SLRA’s lackadaisical and insentitivty to the plight of the people of the region following the collapsed of Mabang Bridge on Friday February 22, 2013.
“Our vegetables are left to rot most times because of the lack of transportation. We no longer have vehicles that could convey our goods to Waterloo, where we used to sell them,” says Yabom Sesay.
Yabom, a trader of vegetables, added, “The ferry that was provided by SLRA has been defunct, and nothing has been done to replace or repair it. We only rely on locally-made canoes to transport us and our goods and it is most times too risky especially at a time when the water level at sea is very high.”
Madam Sesay, who had 15 bags of cucumber waiting to be transported across the sea at the time of interview, said they are no longer realizing profits because of the delay to transport to convey their vegetables to Waterloo.
Another resident, Fatmata Koroma, who claimed to be a single parent with five school-going children, during the time the ferry was working, it was carrying both vehicles and passengers at the same time. She said that vehicles used to get across Mabang village and its surroundings but they now rely on canoes to all cross them after commercial motor bikes convey their vegetables to the habour.
“Sometimes, if we don’t have money to pay motor bikes to convey our goods, we carry them on our heads. This has resulted so many body pains and headaches. At the moment, we are not making profit but we not have an option. This is what we do to enhance our livelihood,” she said.
Many other traders that this medium came in contact with expressed the same feelings and called on government to repair the defunct ferry.
However, Sorie Ibrahim Kanu, Public Relations Officer of SLRA, said even if the ferry was in a good working order, it would have not been useful during the months of July, August and September because of the high level of water at sea.
“That type of ferry that we are using at Mabang is only useful when in November and June when the water level at sea is relatively low. If fact, it was only provided to improvise for the collapsed Mabang Bridge. Our expectation was that, it should have served the people for two years and within that period, we were expecting that the collapsed bridge would have been completed,” he stated in his Kissy office in Freetown on Monday 7th August, 2017.
However, he said after the rains, the ferry will be repaired and the people would start to use it again.
Quizzed if SLRA takes into consideration the number of youth, it has taken out of job because of the defunct ferry, he said the ferry is under contract to a private contractor, who should also be doing some of the maintenance work of the ferry.
“That contractor is responsible to be paying the workers operating the ferry. But we are not casting blames. Had the ferry not really been broken down, the workers would have been doing their jobs,” he said. He added that no one should pay for services rendered by the ferry.
He appealed to the people to continue to exercise calm as the ferry will be repaired soon whilst SLRA is also committed to ensuring that the Mabang Bridge and the road network are improved upon.
