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Monrovia's Slum Communities ‘A Nightmare in Paradise’
66,000 Residents Risk Diseases
Courtesy: Liberian Observer
March 25, 2009

MONROVIA,For several decades now slum communities of Monrovia have been described as ‘a nightmare in Paradise’ by the country’s politicians, economists, policy-makers and ordinary Liberians but no form of alternative solutions has yet been found to the nightmares being faced by these slum dwellers.

At the moment, population statistics show that little over 66,000 residents are legal occupants of one of Monrovia’s biggest commercial districts of West Point, mainly fishermen and petty traders.

In several hours of real encounter with the West Point dwellers on March 23, 2009 most of whom were found to be elderly men and women. They expressed grave concern about the appalling conditions of the densely populated commercial district in Central Monrovia.

Sixty-year-old Daniel Weah Karpeh pointed out that only the late President William Richard Tolbert Jr. had a genuine vision for the West Point dwellers through his national campaign slogan, ‘From Mat to Mattress’ program aimed at addressing Illiteracy, ignorance and disease in Liberia.

Old man Karpeh further noted that the Tolbert Government on many occasions reminded the West Point dwellers that there was going to be a program that would address the housing problem of the residents through a realistic approach that would not displace the huge population of the slum dwellers in the years ahead.

Mr. Karpeh also disclosed that he and his family had lived in West Point for about 50 years and could not easily relocate owing to the number of years they had spent in that slum community.

“Despite the dehumanizing conditions of the slum community,” Old Man Karpeh contended, “we are prepared to live in the stench and squalor until the current Liberian Government designs a realistic housing program for the country.”

During the tour of the crowded slum community by this reporter, several stinky dwelling shacks were spotted in very deplorable conditions; they really do not deserve human habitation.

Majority of the latrine facilities in the West Point Community were so deplorable that the situation could be described as shocking and unacceptable.

Another older generation of the West Point dwellers, one Mrs. Elizabeth Nah Sonpon, 77, told the Daily Observer that the unhygienic situation of the slum community had been an age-old unsolvable problem for the past decades.

“Many governments had come and gone,” Mrs. Sonpon lamented, “only with elaborate promises of better condition but all had been thrown into the dustbins of history.”

She added that with more than 66,000 residents now inhabitants of the slum community, they were now at a big risk of water and airborne diseases.

Madam Sonpon also called on all development-oriented organizations such the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), among others, to design a more realistic housing program for the slum dwellers of West Point and other areas in Monrovia.

The 77-year-old West Point dweller also urged those major development partners of the Liberian Government to begin to visit the deplorable and appalling slum communities of Monrovia in order to see at firsthand the plight of other Liberians.

According to well-placed Liberian Government sources, Madam Sonpon intimated, the Water Front had been earmarked for major rehabilitation but she added that the pace of the invaluable project had not gained any genuine momentum since the pronouncement.

Madam Sonpon further stressed the urgent need for the Government to prioritize the housing problem of West Point as the Atlantic Ocean continues to pose grave threat to the precious lives and properties of West Pointers in Central Monrovia.

“We have sounded several appeals to the Liberian Government and partners but the situation of the West Pointers continued to be swept under the carpet and our condition has become a nightmare in paradise in Monrovia,” Madam Sonpon asserted in frustration and despair.

For their part, youth representatives of the slum community expressed shock and dismay about the unsanitary conditions of the area and called for a swifter action in the interest of sanity.

Youth representative Joseph Blamo Dixon pointed out that many of the latrine facilities in the slum community of West Point were in deplorable state and needed urgent rehabilitation in order to save the thousands of inhabitants from water and airborne diseases.

Also, several market women groups urged the Liberian Government and partners to study the relocation initiative of the West Pointers as a medium term alternative this year.

In conclusion, the women groups called for more clean-up exercises and public health awareness programs that would sensitize the huge population of West Pointers, some of whom are ignorant of basic sanitary practices.