FCC gets two vacuum trucks for liquid waste collection

The Freetown City Council (FCC) has received two vacuum trucks for its liquid waste management duties. The handing over ceremony of the trucks and other semi-mechanized equipment which included e-vac and gulper machines, took place at the FCC hall in Freetown on Tuesday, December 20, 2022. 

The project was funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and implemented by Goal Sierra Leone. It aims to support the Transform Freetown framework, by improving mechanized emptying services in hard-to-reach areas.

The Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE said their priority area has been sanitation. As a result, they set a target to collect 60% of both solid and liquid waste in the municipality. She further said, when she came to office in 2018, statistics showed that only 6% of liquid waste was collected and disposed of by the council, a figure, she said, has increased to around 40% under her administration.  

A structural problem that the mayor said they have faced is that the building permits are not issued by the council but by the lands ministry, which makes the enforcement of their by-law that mandates every structure to have a lavatory, difficult to implement.  

Mayor Akie-Sawyerr said the Wastewater Treatment Plant which has been in existence for over a year, seeks to provide proper faecal sludge management and its conversion to fertilizer and fuel for cooking. This she said is happening for the first time in the country’s history, and feels proud of the achievement. 

She encouraged Freetown residents to be making use of the toll-free line, 8244 to have their liquid waste collection and to report issues of improper waste management. 

The Programme Manager for Goal Sierra Leone, Getu Dabella, said the handing over of the trucks is in the promulgation of the public-private partnership, as the vacuum trucks would be operated by two private companies, who would be paying to the council for a two-year period.