BY Abubakarr Tarawaly
Dignitaries at the launching seremony
The Freetown City Council has concluded the first-ever African Heat Resilience Cities Summit, which brought together mayors, policymakers, urban planners, climate activists, and thought leaders from across the region to address the growing threat of extreme heat in urban areas.
Educating the audience at the opening ceremony at Radisson Blu on Thursday, Yvonne Aki Sawyerr, Mayor of the Freetown Municipality, explained the significance of the summit in advancing the city’s commitment to environmental sustainability and public health.
She emphasised that the newly introduced Heat Action Plan, is a crucial step in ensuring Freetown’s resilience against climate change.
She revealed that through extensive research, collaboration, and consultations with experts and stakeholders, they as council, have crafted a comprehensive strategy to strengthen community resilience and enable residents to adapt to rising temperatures by decreasing the impacts of extreme heat.
She further stated that, they incorporates a range of initiatives, including establishing cooling corridors, the implementation of nature-based solutions, as well as innovative engineering solutions, and the enhancement of public awareness campaigns on heat safety.
”Our commitment to community engagement remains unwavering, so our Heat Action Plan represents a focused effort to tackle one of the most immediate threats to our community: extreme heat. As temperatures continue to rise, we recognise the urgent need to protect the well-being of our residents, particularly the most vulnerable among us,” she stressed.
She continued that understanding the success of the council’s plan hinges upon the active participation of all Freetowneans, stressing that they will continue to work closely with local organisations, businesses, and individuals to ensure that their efforts are inclusive, equitable, and effective.
Mayor Sawyerr urged everyone, to join the Freetown City Council, in their endeavours, to create positive change and build a brighter future for Freetown. She therefore called on residents of Freetown to embrace the Heat Action Plan, as a symbol of their resilience, determination, and solid commitment to the well-being of the city of Freetown.
World Bank Country Manager for Sierra Leone, Abdu Muwonge, said they have recognised that climate change impacts are hurting human productivity, and biodiversity which is prompting African countries to take action, engaging the community as they play a key role in seeing how they will manage the impacts of urban heat.
He said many cities across the continent have been declined of public land, which is poor development control enforcement, and there has also been a rapid land grabbing in the city of Freetown and other cities across the Africa.
“We know the problem before us, and we know the impact on health. This is not a problem for Sierra Leone. It’s not a problem for Africa. It is a global challenge, and for us on the World Bank side, we are embracing the entire agenda of climate change and mitigation, biodiversity, forest for development as part of the global priority programs will be embarking on to support into the future. We will count on your support, but at the same time, we need local collective action,’’ he said.
He further stated that Freetown is challenged with congestion, and the city does not have the luxury like some African cities, where the issue of rural urban migration has taken a tool.
He said other cities were embracing issues of integrated grain management, which is yet to be implemented in Freetown.
He emphasized that the Beach can be amazing for tourism, but because of encroachment by some of the hotel industry, the deterioration of water land mass, which even go worse as mangroves are disappearing under the integrated urban mobility project.
He pointed out that they have worked with communities to restore 40 hectares of mangroves, but that 40 hectares will need nurturing, and need to be given proper care.
He said the Freetown City Council has done several other initiatives under the tree planting programme, through the Sierra Leone resilient urban program and the productive social safety net program combined.
He requested the government to help protect the green belt that also requires massive afforestation to make sure; they bring to a halt the deterioration in the Guma Valley forest cover as a way of enhancing the cool breeze, which everyone will enjoy.
During his key note address, Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, noted that extreme heat threatens the health and economic stability of Africa’s hottest urban areas, stating that the summit will provide detail insight as well as scientific understanding into those challenges by highlighting the numerous impacts, while at the same time promotes actionable status.
‘’Extreme heat is no longer a distant threat. It is a daily reality for millions of Africans across urban cities in Africa, particularly in fast growing urban areas like Freetown. We are fully aware about the dangers posed by climate change, and we are deeply committed to strengthening urban climate resilience through action oriented strategies,” he said.
He highlighted that as government, they have put many things in place including the Freetown the tree town campaign, which is now a shining example of nature based solutions.
He said by planting millions of trees Freetown can improve urban cooling, increases biodiversity and enhances flood management.
He also cited the resilience urban Sierra Leone project, the integrated and resilient Urban Mobility Project, the Peninsula forest landscape initiative, and the Sierra Leone efficacy policy, also developed with a focus to achieve a modern, reliable, cost effective, sustainable and efficient energy system by 2030 based on a diversification of energy mix.
He said no single city or country can tackle those challenges alone, but noted that viable and sustainable solutions required collaboration, partnership among governments, private sector, civil society organizations and development partners.
He said the summit offers a timely opportunity to share best practices, promote innovative strategies and for new partnership, thereby proffering solutions that are both ambitious and at the same time sustainable.
