- Flood impacted communities say they feel abandoned by government
- Accuse Disaster Management Agency staff of stealing aid en route
- Experts say much more needs to be done to protect communities as climate change makes rainy seasons more deadly
The horizon is gray and murky here and in neighboring Glanyah, two communities battered by the wrath of nature. Mohammed Keita, sits on an old sponge mattress gifted him by a neighbor, in the ruins of his former home that was destroyed by flooding last year.
Nearly six months after devastating floods swept through parts of River Cess County, residents here continue to grapple with the aftermath. The floods, caused by rising waters from the Cestos and Teekpor Rivers, destroyed crops, and businesses. They swallowed 27 homes and left at least one person dead. But despite assurances from local officials, aid has still not arrived.
"I'm just managing to speak to you, but I'm really, really frustrated," says Keita, a 72-year-old farmer from ITI, his voice shaking with emotion. Keita's farm was washed away in the floods. "I was highly affected and up to now, no response, no concern from the Liberian government, neither our county authorities."
In the weeks following the flooding, River Cess County Legislative Caucus' Chairperson Senator Bill Twehway, told journalists Liberia's Disaster Agency and Bea Mountain Mining Company had gifted 450 twenty-five-kilogram bags of rice, 20 containers of vegetable oil, and other items. The senator assured the public that a truck filled with these items was on its way.
"Everything was turned over to the Disaster Commission and they informed me they left Monrovia, and they were bringing those things here," said Senator Twehway, at the time. But the truck never arrived.
Residents allege the aid was unloaded and sold by local agents of the Disaster Agency in two communities on the way --Nimba Junction and Oldpa Village.
"I saw them bringing rice, argo oil, small mattresses [and] they brought comforters," said Mahyeadeh Zar, town chief of Nimba Junction. "When they bring those things in Nimba Junction, they pack it here. But later, we saw their car coming for it again. They make business with those things and go about their business."
Ansu Dulleh, head of Liberia's Disaster Management Agency, promised an investigation into the missing aid was underway.
"We will do an immediate investigation to see where the issue comes from," said Dulleh, in an interview. "Whether it's from citizens of that community or from people that went there. We'll find a logical conclusion and we'll have corrective measures very soon as it relates to what happened."
Meanwhile resident say the only help that has come has been from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission which provided 180 households in Glanyah with $U160 each. Residents are now facing a dual crisis: the urgent need for food and water while also struggling to rebuild their homes with another rainy season looming.
In ITI, the flood waters rose quickly. With no warning, people like Keita had no time to pack. The walls of Keita's house on the bank of the Cestos River were hit by the floodwaters that caused walls to fall.
For Keita and his family, the disaster has been especially devastating. With his house partially destroyed and his livelihood washed away, Keita now burns charcoal for a living, while his wife sells cooked. Their 13-year-old daughter, out of school due to the disaster, has only recently been able to return thanks to the small proceeds from the sale of charcoal and food.
"I think you can see my sleeping area is very, very deplorable," Keita says. "All my mattresses, children's mattresses, nothing good here again, because the water carry everything, so I'm really facing constraints of mattresses and some other house items."
Experts have warned the government needs to do far more to be prepared for increasingly bad rainy seasons caused by climate change. In 2024 alone, floodwaters affected 100,000 people across Liberia, with the hardest-hit areas being in River Cess, Bong, and Grand Cape Mount counties, according to the Liberia Disaster Agency. The year before was also one of the worst rainy seasons on record.
Experts say climate change impacts are getting worse faster than expected. Impacts are made worse by a lack of enforcement of laws that forbid people from building in waterways, blocking drainage. Increasing deforestation has also reduced the land's natural capacity to absorb water. The World Bank warned that if nothing is done, climate change could shrink Liberia's economy by 15 percent and push 1.3 million more people into poverty by 2050.
"We are overwhelmed," Dulleh, the Disaster Management Agency chief, told state radio in the middle of the crisis in October. "We have situations all across the country. This is a learning curve for us, so we need to put more resources into national disaster management."
Experts say government must prioritize climate adaptation now.
"Nationally, I don't think that the government is doing much to reduce the impact of climate change on its people," says Sampson Williams, an environmentalist at the Sustainable Development Institute. "The EPA sits right in Monrovia. It allows people to build in the swamps. The Disaster Management Agency of Liberia, they are the response arm of the government, but you see flooding all across the country. But what has the Disaster Management Agency done? I can say nothing. There are allegations of corruption all across the country that they are taking people's food, even though the people are in dire need of food, but they are taking the food from them, they are selling the food."
In Glanyah, the water no longer rises, but the damage remains: homes destroyed, roads and livelihoods washed away. For Princess Nanna, whose provision shop paid school fees for her five kids aged 3 to 13 before it was washed away, life has become a daily struggle.
The town's only well was swallowed by the flood waters for 14 days. The well is now the only source of drinking water, but the community is afraid it has been contaminated.
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"We can go to the various creeks for water," Nanna says. "But we can also go in the bush to defecate. So, when rain comes, it will wash the bushes, and the water will run down to the creek."
Nanna feels abandoned by government. "I didn't receive anything from them. I'm really disappointed."
Jerome Nyenka, a professor of Forest Economics at the University of Liberia, says a government awareness campaign is urgently needed.
"Look around us, people are building in waterways, people are constructing in floodplains, people are dumping garbage into wetlands and thereby tarnishing the integrity of the wetlands and impeding their environmental protection functions," says Nyenka. "So, if we can provide the basic education to our people, we can be sure that they wouldn't take those actions that would impinge upon the integrity of the environment."
As climate change and a struggling economy drive up poverty in rural areas, experts warn that the same tensions that led to Liberia's civil conflict are brewing.
"The government can't do everything, but we need them to help us when it matters," says Keita, echoing anger heard in impacted communities across the country. "We need real change, not empty promises."
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story's content.
