The New Freetown International Airport
Project is the Brain child of His Excellence the President Dr. Ernest Bai
Koroma to open Sierra Leone for business, tourism, direct foreign investment
and a regional aviation hub (West Africa); in the likes of Jomo Kenyatta
Airport in Nairobi, Kenya in East Africa.
Sierra Leone’s mineral wealth will
yield geometric dividend only when the country’s potential is show-cased to the
world business investors. Bearing in mind the very competitive investment
climate of today’s global village, our economy is dependent on our ability to
attract investment as a driver for economic growth. The project is conceived
with the knowledge of our (GDP) exponential economic growth in double digits
(before Ebola) and the need to create room for an improved driver for economic
growth in industrial, manufacturing and agri-business.
In order to stimulate
further investment opportunities without hindrance in the absorptive capacity
of our infrastructural viability; a new airport became necessary to attract
much needed investments to put us at a level befitting a country rated as
amongst the world’s hottest economies – again before Ebola penetrated our
borders plundering everything that the Agenda for Prosperity and its precursor,
the Agenda for Change had painstakingly put together literally block by block.
The good news is the Mamamah Airport project
is on track in spite of the epidemic menace we are faced with in our project
affected area of Koya Chiefdom in the Port Loko district. The scourge of Ebola
has threatened that community and is thus been included under quarantine
following in the footsteps of Kailahun, Kenema and Bombali. Nonetheless the
project is on course and pursuing its project benchmarks that will deliver a
state of the art international airport in 4 years. Our Chinese partners are
wholeheartedly committed to the construction of the airport. With the
unwavering support of government as we speak have demarcated three key areas
for the settlement of relocated communities from our 21000 sq ft Red Zone
dedicated to the Airport and its allied facilities. This Red Zone lies within a
five mile radius project affected site encompassing an Airport Development Zone
(ADZ). The ADZ will be the epicenter of all aviation related service industry
ranging from hotels, conference halls, car parks, security installations,
entertainment facilities, hotel service industry.
About a thousand homes will be built in
these three new locations just outside our five miles Airport Development Zone
(ADZ) perimeter. These homes of two bed, three bed and four bed each in a three
town lot space will house our relocated project affected families who currently
live and work within our much needed airport zone. The construction of the
airport starts with the planning and demarcation of these homes and subsequent
construction soonest. This will enable us to speedily start actual construction
work on the airport itself. To enable us to assess the number of households in
our project area, we conducted a demographic survey of the 63 villages within
the Mamamah axis to do a head count of properties and population density; as
well as the occupational livelihoods of communities in the area. This will help
us compensate families and households due for relocation according to their
size and specific needs.
The contractors are mobilizing their
equipment and heavy machinery while the metrological data machinery which has
been on the airport site for months is recording the weather conditions
specific to that area. This is paramount in the determination of the runway
orientation. Our consultant engineer is working in collaboration with the
Metrological Department; whose experts are collecting and collating data on a
regular basis for analysis. Meanwhile the China Exim Bank is in constant
engagement with the Ministry of Finance to expedite the loan agreement
according to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the government of
Sierra Leone and the Peoples Republic of China.
The Project Implementation Unit is in
continual engagement with the project affected communities for a smooth
relocation packaged to be mapped out for the village communities within our
project site. In this process all community stake holders including the
Paramount Chief, section chiefs of the 19 sections of Koya Chiefdom and their
local headmen are part of our regular community outreach. We have conducted
several community awareness programs on the relocation process. Both the host
communities and those due for relocation have been engaged for better
understanding and resolution of any outstanding issues prior to relocation.
Three major settlements will be built to accommodate all the project affected
communities and villages. The three sections encompass a North, South and West
Section which will cluster our relocated communities; with all facilities that
currently exist in their communities will be replicated with modern building
materials and cement structures erected with zinc roofing to last longer than
their original structures in their village communities.
Since the outbreak of Ebola virus disease,
the PIU has been actively engaged with community leaders in raising awareness
about the prevention of the spread of the disease within our locality. All our
community meetings have been centered on the prevention of the spread of the
disease. And quite recently we organized a mammoth meeting of village
communities in our project affected area and presented materials useful in the
prevention of the Ebola virus disease.
The project construction will be officially
launched by His Excellency the President in due course as we piece together all
construction loose ends and data collection currently taking place at the
airport site
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