By Nafisatu Olayinka Deen
Freetown, 25th August 2025 -For more than two decades, the Granville Brook dumpsite locally known as “Bomeh”, has been a major waste disposal hub in Freetown. Located in the Kissy Dock Yard area along the busy Bai Bureh Road in the city’s east, Bomeh receives large volumes of municipal waste daily. But to the residents who live nearby, the site has become more than just a dumpsite, it is a constant source of health risks, unbearable discomfort, and deep frustration.
A persistent, pungent stench hangs over the Granville Brook community, and massive piles of rotting garbage line the road.
“We see trucks and tricycles coming in every day to dump more waste,” says Kadiatu Conteh, chairlady of the dumpsite dwellers. “We used to have a big machine that helped move the waste towards the swamp, but it got destroyed in a fire. The City Council gave us a new one, but it’s too small to cope.” Kadiatu, who has lived at the site for over 20 years, says they’ve received support from both NGOs and government in the past. But, the problems persist.
The site is overstretched, with far more waste than it can handle. As a result, the surrounding areas are now burdened by overflow. “There’s not enough space because people have built into parts of the dumpsite land,” explains Mohamed Kanu, the assistant at the site. “That’s why it overflows. And though the City Council is running awareness campaigns on waste disposal, we get constant complaints especially during the dry season.”
But it’s not just about inconvenience. Residents say living next to Bomeh is a threat to their health.
“The smoke from the burning trash can hang in the air for days, it chokes us,” says Abdulai Bah, a nearby resident. “Sometimes we can’t breathe properly. The air is polluted with smoke or awful smells. During the rainy season, the overflow blocks gutters and causes flooding.”
Many residents say they have had enough and are now calling for the complete relocation of the dumpsite out of the city.
“Why should a city have a dumpsite in the middle of a community?” Bah questions.
Plans for a new sanitary landfill are underway, according to the 2020–2021 Transform Freetown report. The Freetown City Council, in partnership with the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank-funded Resilient Urban Sierra Leone Project (RUSLP), is working on developing a modern waste management park to replace the aging and overloaded Granville Brook site. The new facility is expected to enhance waste service delivery and reduce disaster risk in the Western Area.
But for residents in Granville Brook, the wait for relief continues. Until the relocation becomes a reality, they remain trapped in toxic conditions, breathing in smoke, coping with the awful smell of decomposed waste and waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.
