Flooding: The Senate of Liberia Considers Moving the Capital City

A group of senators in Liberia have suggested moving the capital city from the congested and badly run Monrovia. The proposal was welcomed with a mixture of enthusiasm and reluctance in the West African nation due to severe flooding.

The national disaster management agency reported that approximately 50,000 Liberians were in immediate need due to flash floods caused by intense rains that occurred between the end of June and the beginning of July.

A weak sewage infrastructure, a lack of building regulations, and overcrowding contributed to the unusually severe damage suffered by the capital, which is prone to flooding.

A senate joint committee that met in early July to study the ongoing flooding issue proposed founding a new city to take Monrovia’s place.

A teenage motorbike rider in the capital named Chris Kpewudu commented, “It’s a good idea because our current capital city is a mess.”

“Our capital city could look like, or more like, Abuja, but with a new city, it will be well laid out and there is garbage all over the city and when it rains, there is flooding everywhere,” he continued.

One of the few planned capital towns on the African continent is Abuja, Nigeria.

Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, and Yamoussoukro, the city of the Ivory Coast, were also created as administrative capitals around the close of the 20th century, and all three towns are located in the geographical center of their respective nations.

Situated on the Atlantic coast of Liberia, one of the world’s poorest nations, Monrovia is home to 1.5 million people.

With the Freeport of Monrovia serving as a gateway for Liberian commodities, such as iron ore, rubber, and lumber, to reach the United States and Europe, the city serves as the political, cultural, and economic center of the nation.

However, the city’s dilapidated infrastructure is barely able to support its rapidly growing population.

The Ministry of Public Works said AFP that it was closely examining the proposal and that any decision would be based on its economic feasibility. The plan did not yet specify the precise area for the shift, it added.

The director of communications for the ministry, T. T. Benjamin Myers, stated that “having a new city is capital-intensive.”

As a nation, we still have a national budget of about $600 million. Thus, many technical, financial, and economic variables will need to be carefully taken into account while establishing a new city, he continued.

“Not a magic bullet”

In the oldest republic in Africa, the idea to change the capital is not new.

Then-president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf proposed moving Monrovia to a new city in the nation’s center named Zekepa in 2012.

Marayah Fyneah, the national program officer of the Liberian Women’s Legislative Caucus, told AFP, “We were all excited and looking forward to that.”

She said, “But regrettably, we did not even see a plan to show what the city would look like.”

Considering the outcome of the last attempt, Fyneah expressed doubt that a new capital for Liberia would emerge during her lifetime.

A few locals who spoke with AFP expressed hesitation as well, arguing that the government ought to focus on addressing poverty and enhancing infrastructure before looking for a new capital.

“Our legislators are disregarding the problems facing our nation. As one analyst put it, “Even Monrovia is badly managed in terms of sanitation and a lot more,” Princess Elexa Vanjah-Kollie is a journalist.

A new capital that is both viable and requires considerable urban planning has been cautioned about by experts.

Professor of economics at the University of Liberia Christopher Wallace told AFP that “founding a new city is not a quick fix.”

“You have to have done zoning to have a clear layout of what such a city will look like, and you want to take into consideration the economic activities that would make the economy vibrant in that area,” he continued.