Rural-Urban migration with its resultant population growth in Freetown has led to encroachment on Aberdeen Creek and other areas which ought to be protected. This has led to the destruction of its natural vegetation of Mangroves and water pollution. It is a designated as one of the protected sites in Freetown the Capital City of Sierra Leone. It is protected by the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention), and it serves as an important nesting ground for birds and a vital spawning site for fish in the Freetown estuary.
Some marine species are said to have gone into extinction because of severe destruction of wetlands along the coastal areas of the Aberdeen Creek in Freetown.
Senior Environmental Officer at the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Arouna Williams says the construction of houses had been the main factor causing significant loss of mangrove vegetation and degradation. Mangroves and the biodiversity of wetlands serve as carbon zinc that absorbs carbondioxide from the atmosphere thereby protecting the environment to be conducive for the breeding of aquatic species.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is mandated to issue licenses to businesses, and is mandated to also regulate them and make them comply with permissible environmental and human practices.
He further said that the Agency does not issue out license for people to erect buildings at Ramsar sites which the Institution has signed an agreements to protect.
He said previously so many plant and animal species lived in the area but they have now either gone into extinction or have found other areas to live w where they are undisturbed by human activities, such as the series of construction work going on in the swamp.
He added that, in as much as the Agency had demarcated the swamp in the past, they could not find most of the pillars they had erected to map the swamp and maintain a buffer to prevent encroachers.
He said that most people removed the pillars which had marked the areas that were off limits for private use, and illegally erect illegal structures in the swamp as well as providing documents of title which they argued were authentic from the Ministry of Lands.
Environmental experts say the ocean and vegetation are the most important carbon zincs, but negative human activities in the environment has forced it to experience significant mangrove loss in the aquatic environment, risking the marine species and gradually leading to extermination of many.
By Isabella Cassell
04/03/2021. ISSUE NO: 8014