Rebuilding Sierra Leone

You may know Sierra Leone from the book “A Long Way Gone”, by Ishmael Beah. This book focuses on the nearly decade-long civil war in the country, and all the disasters related to it. But, that is over now. Sierra Leone, however, still has many problems. One of these is how to feed all 8 million people in the country. Solving this is a problem that will take an organized effort and work from many different sectors. Just one part of this is rebuilding the road system Sierra Leone has in place. This not only can help with food, but lift people out of poverty and help create a road network for a greater, more developed country.

Since the war, Sierra Leone has made significant progress on the road to recovery and prosperity, but it is still nowhere near where it has the potential to be. The HDI, or Human Development Index score is amongst the lowest in the world, at .419 in 2017 (“Table 1.”). However, in 1990, the HDI score was .275 (“Human Development Data”). This indicates improvement, however, the HDI for the world is .728 (“Table 1.”), so there is a lot of work to be done still. Also, it is ranked in the bottom five of the GHI, or the Global Hunger Index, with a score of 35.7. This is improvement from the year 2000, when they had a score of 54.4. For reference, lower scores are better. (“Sierra Leone” [Global Hunger Index]).

Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with temperatures 27C (80.6F) across almost the entire country. There are two main seasons in the country: a dry season and a wet season. The dry season typically lasts from November to April, with winds bringing sandstorms from the Sahara Desert. On the other hand, the wet season brings monsoons, with an annual average of 315 CM (124 IN) of rain (“Sierra Leone” [Nations Encyclopedia]).

The rainy climate is ideal for agriculture. Two-thirds of the population of almost 8 million relies on farming. Farming accounts for half of the GDP, and is also one of the main sources of food for people, along with markets where they buy and sell food. 80% of farmers grow rice, which is a staple in almost every dish they have. Some of the issue plaguing farmers include labor shortages, harmful practices, lack of helpful technologies, and losses of food. Households often hold extended family, with three to five generations living in a single house, with everyone who can help out helping (“Sierra Leone” [Nations Encyclopedia]).

With most people farming away from cities, where the majority of healthcare is, diseases are widespread. This results in high infant mortality rates, widespread sickness, high death rates and low life expectancy. Out of every 1,000 births, 83.3 infants do not make it. 38% of kids will be at least moderately malnourished before age five. The situation is similar for adults. Life expectancy averages a mere 52 years, and 303.5 out of every one thousand people will have malaria. (“Sierra Leone” [United Nations]). There is much improvement to be made here.

Another major issue for the country is that education is limited, in part due to the civil war, which destroyed 1,270 schools across the country (“A Model School”). This put thousands out of school, and many ended up fighting in the war as child soldiers. On average, every person only has 3.5 years of education, with literacy rates at only a third of the population (“Sierra Leone” [United Nations]). Some work has been done on rebuilding schools, but the system is not yet up to prewar levels.

The government is a constitutional democracy. They have three branches of government: The Executive, consisting of a president, who serves as both the head of government and the head of state. The Legislative, with a House of Representatives, consisting of 124 members. Finally, the Judicial branch includes multiple courts, including “a Supreme Court, a Court of Appeal, and a High Court of Justice, with judges appointed by the president” (“Sierra Leone” [Gale]).

Speaking of government, they have a branch in charge of road transportation, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority. Sadly, the status of the road system in Sierra Leone is severely lacking. According to MambaTV, over 500 miles of a sample of 1,168 miles of road were unpaved. (“MambaTV Investigates”) This is similar across the country. Sierra Leone has around 11,700 kilometers of roads, and roughly half are unpaved. Alongside that, many of the roads have been damaged from the civil war. This makes travel difficult for many people.

If Sierra Leone would improve its road system many benefits would arise. A better road system will save people time, as they don’t have to rely on simple paths or gravel roads that may lead to nowhere, they can have smooth, paved roads that lead directly to their destination. This also would allow easier access to markets, so that farmers can sell their food, and for them to potentially purchase food for companies, who can also use the roads to deliver food safer and smoother. It would also set up Sierra Leone for a future where cars are commonplace, and allow easy ways to move people in emergencies.

It is clear that having a decent road system is vital in emergencies and for moving people and goods. So what can Sierra Leone do to “modernize” their road system? Sierra Leone has, as previously mentioned, about 11,700 kilometers of roads, many of which are unpaved. The solution is simple: replace the unpaved roads with paved roads, and fix the existing paved roads. The proposal has two main parts. The first is to have the government set up both a short term and a long term plan to rebuild the road system, and use new discoveries to keep the road system lasting longer. And the second part is to set up a plan to keep the roads safe and usable over the long term. It is comparable to the highway system in the United States and its uses, however, they have a base to start off of.

To do this, there are many steps that need to be done. The first important step is to get the government to support the project. Without their support, nothing else can be done. Once that is done, the next step is to find a private company to work with them. Then, they need to determine where funding will come from. Next, they simply have to rebuild the roads, maybe build a few new ones where needed, and then they are almost done. The last step is to set up a group at the SLRA to provide maintenance, and recommend roads to be rebuilt where needed. This will get the road system rebuilt, and keep it working for decades to come, assuming no major changes happen in government.

Now, one major issue is cost. However, Sierra Leone can look at the country of Senegal as an example of how to deal with this problem. Senegal has built a 32 km toll highway from their capital, Dakar, to the new economic district of Diamniadio. (“Senegal’s Dakar to Diamniadio”) They did this with what is called a “public-private-partnerships”, where the government and another company work together to complete a project, for the benefit of both groups. In this case, they worked together over 11 years to set up, build, and open the highway. They then placed an affordable toll so that they can profit from it. In addition, almost a thousand jobs were created during this project, and access to services in the city improved. If Sierra Leone did the same thing, but over a larger scale, thousands of jobs could be created, both from fixing/building the roads, and from maintenance. An added benefit is that it would lift these families out of poverty, with a steady job and income source.

On the topic of jobs and maintenance, maintenance is an important topic to cover. If you look at the United States Interstate system, it is falling apart and not being repaired when needed. Potholes are commonplace nationwide, and dangerous. “The interstates have long been the backbone of our country’s transportation system, but most of them have exceeded their design lives and in many places are worn and overused,” says Norman Augustine (qtd. in Sparkman). The cost of building the American highway system was huge, and, now that is has gone years without repair, the costs are huge. According to the U.S. DOT, the government would have to spend “between $123.7 billion and $145.9 billion per year to both maintain and improve the condition of roads and bridges alone” (“New Department of Transportation Report”). If Sierra Leone planned for the long-term issues when fixing their roads, they could save themselves billions in the long run. They could do this by creating jobs within the SLRA to fix potholes or redo roads as needed to keep the roads safe and smooth.

Sierra Leone can also, surprisingly enough, also help the environment while building their paved road system. It is no secret that plastic pollution is a huge issue across the environment. Studies have shown that partially replacing sand with chemically treated plastic can result in concrete almost as strong as or stronger than normal concrete. (Thorneycroft, J. et. al.) So, one option is to ship waste plastic to Sierra Leone for them to use in their road system, and ship back to other countries crops they have grown, in a back-and-forth system. This would “kill two birds with one stone”, as Sierra Leone could vastly improve their road system, and, as a result, lower the rates of poverty and hunger, and the environment would have notably less plastic floating around in it; a net gain for everyone involved. This part of the solution could potentially be applied across all of Africa, and even the world.

There is one last added benefit to building a road system. With a standardized road system, there is the potential to open up new schools, markets, and wells by the roads, with signs to mark where they are. This, once again, mirrors the American interstate system. Doing this would allow literacy rates to rise, more people to have access to clean water, resulting in lower disease rates. This also could result in shorter or more frequent trips to the market, enabling more food to be purchased or sold, which would help with hunger problems or poverty. And, this would allow cars to be used easily and safely on the roads in the future, however, that is not a problem for most people right now, as 53% of the population is in poverty, with no easy way out yet (“Population Below Poverty Line”).

So, the solution is viable. It is simple, but effective. It can work both in the short term and long term. It also can generate money for the Sierra Leonean government, propel them towards being a developed country, and create jobs for people. But, more importantly, it allows more people to access food easier. And while it may not be perfect, some work can solve the major problems.

Fixing the road systems in a developing country has many benefits, both expected and unexpected. It not only can help with food security, but create jobs and prepare the country for the future. There are many things that need worked out, but, with some help, it can easily get done. Food is a basic human right, and anything and everything that can give people access to food must be done. Change is needed, and that work can be started anytime. Kids like Ishmael deserve a better life, without worries of food or war.

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