‘Now you possibly can have relaxation in your house’: the mirror roofs cooling houses in Freetown

Mohamed Koroma has lived within the Kroo Bay waterfront neighborhood in Freetown for greater than 50 years however can not keep in mind a time when the climate has been as scorching because it was within the first few months of 2024. In that interval, he and plenty of others within the Sierra Leonean capital needed to quiet down of their baths and sleep on their verandas.

“These that may afford to, they purchased electrical followers,” mentioned the unemployed 61-year-old. “Those that can not afford [them] you simply go away your physique like that.”

A heatwave hit elements of west Africa from February till April, with temperatures of between 30C and 40C- however with intense humidity, which residents say made them really feel issues had been 10 levels hotter.

Town is crowded. In 1990, it housed 529,000 folks however has since swelled to an estimated inhabitants of 1.3 million.

“After I was 15, 16, we had sufficient house to even play soccer … however presently, as a result of urbanisation and different [reasons], the world has been crossed out with homes. Kids would not have anyplace to play now.”

Many say that through the hottest months they resorted to spending the evening on verandas, because the interiors of their houses had been too scorching, even for individuals who had followers or air con.

Muctar Koroma, a 32-year-old legislation pupil and journalist, has an air conditioner nevertheless it couldn’t address the extraordinary heatwave this 12 months. “It couldn’t comprise the warmth within the room,” he mentioned. “This era was arduous to face up to for a lot of mother and father who’ve youngsters and sick sufferers who needed to maintain their well being circumstances.”

As Koroma scrolled by means of social media to distract himself from the lingering warmth even whereas outdoors, he may see his neighbours on their verandas too, all hoping to seek out some aid from the warmth.

A part of the issue is that the town’s growth has triggered large deforestation of the pure land cowl and warmer climate, mentioned Eugenia Kargbo, who was appointed chief warmth officer by the town’s mayor in 2021. “The development evaluation that we did just lately … exhibits that temperature is rising at an exponential price throughout completely different communities in Freetown,” she mentioned.

Greater than a 3rd of the inhabitants stay within the 82 casual settlements scattered across the metropolis, some alongside the shoreline, and metropolis officers say they’re the worst affected by the affect of the local weather disaster.

In Kroo Bay, the most important of all of them, there are greater than 18,000 folks, in accordance with the Sierra Leone City Analysis Centre, they usually usually lack important companies similar to water, electrical energy and waste administration.

Koroma, for instance, lives in a 10-room bungalow along with his spouse and three youngsters. His two brothers additionally stay there: one with three youngsters, the opposite along with his spouse and one baby. A number of different non-relatives additionally stay within the constructing as tenants.

“The buildings are usually not designed to deal with the extent of warmth that we face. A lot of the doorways and home windows are very small and …[about] 90-95% of the supplies used to assemble [them] are corrugated iron sheets, and these are heat-trapping supplies,” mentioned Kargbo.

Since her appointment, Freetown metropolis council has been experimenting with other ways to assist residents address excessive warmth because the local weather emergency impacts a rustic ranked because the 18th most climate-vulnerable on the Notre Dame world adaptation index.

Kargbo’s workplace has been planting bushes, a troublesome endeavour in a metropolis the place out there land is commonly snapped up for housing. To guard girls promoting within the metropolis’s 42 markets – principally open-air avenue stalls – from excessive warmth, polycarbonate shades had been put in in a few of them, in partnership with Local weather Resilience for All.

After the supplies had been broken by a windstorm, metropolis officers are actually searching for options that may stand up to a number of local weather dangers.

However one other of the cooling initiatives has had extra success. In Kroo Bay, a number of dozen households now have new heat-reflective roofing sheets constituted of recycled plastics in a pilot programme – which shall be expanded to cowl 35% of residents throughout all casual settlements in Freetown. The sheets are being utilized on to present roofing sheets and on new buildings.

Temperature sensors are getting used to seize information from the homes the place the mirror sheets have been put in. And there’s fixed analysis, testing completely different methods and know-how to enhance and scale up cooling throughout the casual settlements.

Whereas a full analysis shall be made by the top of the 12 months, officers say preliminary outcomes present reductions in home temperatures by as a lot as 6C.

The residents agree. “It’s truly almost one 12 months now since they [the council] put in for me and a few of my neighbours,” mentioned Koroma, who can also be vice-chair for Kroo Bay neighborhood. “It has already created envy as a result of some neighbours would not have [but] for individuals who are privileged to get it, there’s some quantity of aid. [Now] you possibly can have relaxation in your house.

“I truly need to advocate for the opposite folks that would not have [the mirror roofing], if solely there’s help for the organisations that convey on this pilot, as a result of that might be good for the neighborhood.”