Our man in Hastings: Diary of a Sierra Leone visit
Council leader Peter Pragnell is visiting Hastings in Sierra Leone. Read his blog here.
Today was a long hot day of courtesy calls with very friendly receptions and very positive discussions with a variety of local & national government people here in Sierra Leone.
First up, we went to the Freetown City Council offices to pay a call on the Hon. Herbert A. George Williams, the Mayor, and his guest, the Mayor of Makeni, a city in the Northern Province. As with Western Area Rural District (WARDC), the topic foremost in the Mayor's mind was the problem of waste management. Freetown is a city teeming with several million people from all over Sierra Leone and has two main dumps in residential areas. Because WARDC surrounds the city, the problem is a shared one and solutions will have to be found jointly. If HBC can help, so much the better. We'll start looking at ways on our return to the UK.
After that we paid a call on Dr Denis M Sandy, Minister of Lands, Country Planning & the Environment - a huge portfolio. Again the conversation centred on waste management and water supply with tourism thrown in.
Our final call of the morning was on the Minister for Local Government. One thing I picked up on very early is that government - local or national - is basically the same the world over. We all face the same problems and challenges. In Sierra Leone the government is actively pursuing a policy of decentralisation. Also present was Alison Sutherland, a local government advisor from the Commonwealth Secretariat, who is British. She is au fait with our project and the work of CLGF.
After a much anticipated lunch of potato leaves and peppered rice - and plenty of cold drinks - it was back to work. We called on the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, the Hon Hindolo Sumanguru Trye, where we once again talked about waste management, but this time as it related to improving the environment and making Sierra Leone more attractive as a tourist destination. This country has huge potential but much needs to be done for it to compete with its neighbours n particular transport and hotels. Foreign investment will help.
Our meeting with the Vice-President having been postponed until Thursday, that was our official day over. We crawled back to our hotel in traffic that was especially bad. Driving conditions and behaviour have to be experienced to be believed. Our ten-hour day has been exhausting but ultimately satisfying.
I've just finished writing postcards and am preparing for tomorrow when our friends from WARDC are taking us on a tour of potential tourist sites. This will involve several beaches, which are beautiful.
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Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 2 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
