Alarm bells are sounding along Sierra Leone’s Peninsula Coast as severe coastal erosion and rising sea levels continue to wash away land, historical infrastructure, and vital livelihoods. Reflecting on the onset of the coastline’s degradation, one local resident recalled the sudden loss of vital access routes following heavy rainfall decades ago. In the year 1996, because after the rainy season of that year, I was not able to use that road again,” he explained, pointing out that several major beachfront developments have since vanished completely into the ocean. Structures that once defined the community’s shoreline include the original YMCA building, the Fawaz building, various Lebanese-owned hotels and bungalows, and the St. Michael Hotel are no longer visible today.
Claudius Ola Taylor, the former Communications, Membership, and Development Officer for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), provided a detailed account of how coastal erosion systematically dismantled decades of organizational investment at Lakka Beach. “I’ve been in the YMCA for 35 years now. We were able to secure a property at Lakka with sponsorship from our German partners in 1979. We had a recreational center there, a resort center, and we also used it as a dwelling place for people who want to go and camp, and also for outings, etc. But in late 1997, to be precise, we started experiencing some erosion around the Lakka Beach area where, first and foremost, the trees that we used to bank there were washed away, started falling down, and the level of the water came up on to the point that the African Hut that was used for dancing, etc. was also affected by the sea taking over the land.
And most of our investment, because we had by then about 32 acres of land and we had some chalets there as well that were used for dwelling and camping. So, it started with the mango trees, the trees around the banks, and also the African Hut, and eventually, we lost everything. We lost everything that we invested in the Lakka Beach.” The catastrophic loss of land at Lakka Beach highlights an escalating environmental crisis facing Freetown’s coastal communities. Reclaiming lost ground and mitigating further environmental damage present immense financial and enforcement challenges.
In a concluding warning, Mr. Taylor emphasized the urgent necessity for regulatory compliance and environmental enforcement to save the remaining coastline: “Presently, the sea is reclaiming the land, and for us to reclaim the land back from the sea, it will cost us a fortune. And also, to put modalities in place to arrest those who might want to violate the laws, or else, we’ll wake one morning and we’ll see no more land around the Peninsula Coast, but the sea.”
