08/17/2026
AUGUST IN FREETOWN: WHEN RAIN EXPOSES OUR SHAME
Every year around this time, the same videos circulate.
Brown water running through streets like rivers. Children wading with buckets on their heads. Garbage floating into people’s parlors. Families sleeping on chairs because the floor is now a swimming pool.
And every year we say the same 3 things:
"God have mercy"
"Pray for Freetown"
"Government do something"
But can we be honest for 2 minutes?
The rain is not killing us. We are killing ourselves.
1. THE DRAINAGE SCAM
How do you build a city on hills and valleys and forget water needs to go somewhere?
We block natural waterways to build houses. We sell wetlands to developers. We approve construction on slopes because "big man" paid for the papers. Then when rain comes, water remembers its original route and takes our houses with it.
Where are the proper drainage systems? Where are the culverts, the canals, the retention basins?
We don’t have them because drainage doesn’t win elections. Roads and flyovers do. So we keep patching potholes while entire communities drown.
2. THE GARBAGE WE CELEBRATE
Let’s talk about us too.
Our gutters are trash bins. Sachet water, plastic bags, diapers, bottles. We sweep dirt from our yard straight into the street gutter. Market women dump waste by the roadside and by 6PM it’s in the drain.
Then it rains. The trash blocks what little drainage exists. Water backs up. And we come online to curse government.
No city can drain properly if its people use the drainage as a dustbin. Cleanliness is not a government job. It starts with you and me. But we love pointing fingers until the water enters our own room.
3. POLITICS OF SYMPATHY
Every August: sandbags, rice bags, and press conferences. "We feel your pain."
Where was that energy in January when budgets were being passed? Where were the 5-year drainage masterplans?
We don’t want solutions. We want drama. Because disaster gets donor money, gets NGO attention, gets votes. If we actually fixed drainage, what would politicians campaign on next year?
4. THE CLASS DIVIDE FLOOD
Notice something? The flood doesn’t affect everyone equally.
If you live on the hill with proper foundation and drainage, you post "stay safe" and continue Netflix.
If you live in low-lying, unplanned communities, you’re moving your mattress to the roof.
We planned the city for the rich and left the poor to swim. That is not an accident. That is policy.
Rain is going to fall every August. That’s not changing.
What can change is:
1. Enforce building codes. Stop approving houses in waterways. Demolish if you have to.
2. Massive investment in drainage not just photo-op projects.
3. Waste management that works. Fines for dumping. Bins in every community.
4. Personal responsibility. Stop throwing trash in the gutter and then crying when it floods.
Until then, we will keep sharing these videos. We will keep losing property. We will keep burying people.
And next August we will post the exact same message.
Rain doesn’t destroy communities.
Negligence does.