Assessing the Adaptive Capacity of Slum Households to Flooding in the Coastline of Portee and Rokupa, Freetown, Sierra Leone

Abstract

Frequent flooding has been a significant problem in Freetown, causing loss of lives and properties. The situation is worse for coastal residents, who are more vulnerable and exposed to the impacts. The government has made commitments to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity by 2030. However, there is currently insufficient information to comprehend the coastal residents of Portee and Rokupa’s capacity to adapt to the yearly flooding to which they are subjected. This study aims to assess the adaptive capacity of 204 slum households selected by purposive sampling and using the local adaptive capacity framework. The results show that the widespread adaptive concerns are unflood-proofed housing; low membership in community-based organizations; and the lack of innovative, flexible and forward-looking flood management initiatives. This study argues that the inhabitants have reached their adaptation limit and are now fated to more loss and damage. The author recommends future studies to forecast the assets in the study location that will potentially be affected by different flood intensities when subjected to future climate change scenarios.

Households’ readiness and community-based organisations’ role in flood management: The case of Freetown City’s coastal area

“…Previous reports showed an estimated 1,165.2 households in the study area (Macarthy et al, 2017;Statistics Sierra Leone, 2019;Turay, 2022). Conditioned by the scope of this study, the authors purposefully selected 204 of these for investigation.…”

“…This population resides in a densely populated area with low literacy and a high rate of poverty (NEC-SL, 2017;Statistics Sierra Leone, 2019). The main socioeconomic activity is fishing and the processing and marketing of fisheries (Macarthy et al, 2017;Turay, 2022).…”