Monrovia – Oretha Gbasu, 45, mother of five, is finding it difficult to deal with the sea erosion but at the same time she does not want to live anywhere besides the township of West Point.
Speaking to FrontPageAfrica, Gbasu explained that at 5 am on Saturday, July 4 while she was still in bed, water flooded the community, destroying properties and making several of her neighbors homeless in the Kru Beach community. Four out of Gbasu’s eight room house were also destroyed by the water.
West Point is Monrovia’s bigger slum community. During the rainy season, erosion and rising sea levels cause many families to be homeless.
Successive administrations have tried and failed to relocate people of West Point. Sea erosion remains a nightmare, leaving over 3,000 families homeless every rainy season.
Gbasu, like many other residents, do not want to be relocated despite the frequent threat from the sea. Instead, they want the government to make quick intervention by building a coastal defense to help protect their township from annihilation.
“If the government does not come to our aid, the sea will sweep us away. We want the government to help us and built the coastal defense,” said Gbasu, who says life is becoming unbearable.
“Relocation will not be good for us because for me since I was born I have been in West Point. Until now, for someone to say I should go. Where I will go to? So, the government should come and block the sea for us.”
Another resident, Jimmy Wleh, is a fisher man. He said the sea erosion has destroyed his two houses and even cracked his canoe.
Despite his ordeal, Wleh says he does not want to relocate because the community is suitable for fishing.
In 2016, the National Housing Authority along with partners cleared 12.5 acres of land for the construction of the first 108 housing units for some residents of West Points that were affected by the erosion.
Wleh said, “The first relocation was done partially. People who were not affected by sea erosion benefited from it. In the end, when they carried them they started to come back to West Point.”
“The people that were over the relocation process at that time put their families and other people that they were acquainted with and they left the main people that were affected out of the relocation process.
“For us, we are appealing to the government and other donors to come to our aid for coastal defense.”
Another resident, Todd Tombekai, who runs a micro loan scheme, recalls how his office was destroyed by the sea erosion two years ago. Now, he is more worried about the new threat coming from the Ocean.
“As you can see vividly, West Point is being pushed by sea erosion, and it’s affecting us so badly. All of these places used to be a residential area but the ocean has taken over it,” Tombeka said.
As the rainy season reaches its peak, Tombeka is worried that many families will again be made homeless. He too has stressed the urgency of the coastal defense project to curb the motion.
“We that are in West Point need coastal defense. I just started my house project in Kebbah and hopefully, I will leave West Point but most of the people in West point cannot afford to leave. So, I think the coastal defense will be the best thing for the bulk of the people,” Tombekai said.
Like Tombeka, Arthur Williams, also has a concern: “Since last month, the sea has been given us hell. We have been moving from here and there. Some of us are fishermen. So, we are appealing to the government to help us built the coastal defense just like how they did in New Kru Town. We do not want to be relocated.”