The cooling shade of the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) office offered a brief rescue for Moscillla Neufville. After walking under the scorching midday sun, her face was flushed and her body slick with sweat. Catching her breath, she declared, "The heat is too much."
As Chief Heat Officer (CHO) of the City of Paynesville, Neufville's role is helping residents adapt to rising heat temperatures caused by climate change. She intends to provide cooling shades for market women, and plant trees on various streets and communities.
As climate ravages across continents, rising temperatures are increasing. Compounded by limited awareness and understanding of what a heat wave is, people struggle to grasp its impact. Paynesville residents are no exception. That is why Neufville's first approach is educating them about what is happening through awareness.
"We asked them, have you experienced extreme heat in this dry season? How is this dry season treating you? That's the first question," she said. "When they say I am feeling heat, I am suffering from sun burn then we will give them some measures that they can take and some of the measures you can take during this dry season as a citizen of Paynesville is to firstly put on cotton clothes that is not heavy, and secondly is to find whatever cooling centers because we don't have cooling centers in Paynesville."
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Outside of the cooling spaces, and light clothes, she wants residents to also make use of public libraries, although there are fewer in the city, and rarely open to the public.
"Also ,you have to keep being hydrated," she said.
Heat is built up over a period of days and nights in the atmosphere, acting as a risk multiplier that causes a wide range of health and economic crises that affect women, disabled people, and elderly people heavily. Other impacts lead to increased mortality rates and diminished water quality due to severe droughts and wildfires.
Neufville's appointment comes as Liberia is experiencing rising temperatures that experts say will impact farmers, the elderly, and the vulnerable populace who live in makeshift houses built with zinc and cement without air conditioning for comfort. In 2024, Africa was the warmest year in Africa, according to the World Meteorological Organization's State of the Climate in Africa report.
Apart from climate change, urbanization, over crowdedness and population growth can also cause heat.
Some people suffered heat exhaustion in public places. President Joseph Boakai, during his inaugural address in 2024, suffered from heat exhaustion after he failed to reach the end of his inauguration speech and had to be helped away from the podium.
As the second in Africa, since Eugenia Kargbo was appointed as CHO in Sierra Leone in 2021. She has since erected shade covers for market women and planted 1.2 million trees across 18 reforestation sites. Each tree is equipped with a tracking device and a unique ID, enabling the monitoring of its growth and maintenance. Although Neufville anticipates using the same approaches, her main reliance is on the international donor community and philanthropists to fund these projects.
"We are looking for collaboration and partners," she said. "We have some proposals on hand. We are talking to some partners from Sierra Leone so that they will be able to come to our aid because the City is challenge, they can't do it on their own. We don't have the capacity. We don't have the finances. We have the funds to carry on what we plan to do."
The starting point for Neufville's work was the launch of the Paynesville Climate Action Plan that aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions and help residents adapt to the changing weather patterns and rising temperatures.
"That PCAP served as a roadmap to combating the climate, which was the first step that we took, and after that our undercover work we have been doing so far, we have been reaching out to schools to let them know what is happening to them."
Next month, Neufville and her team will begin the Urban Heat Island Mapping project to collect data on heat hotspots in Paynesville.
The fight to help Liberians adapt to the effects of climate change has been evolving. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with funding from the Swedish embassy through Conservation Internationa,l launched the country's first National Mangrove Inventory, a major step under the Blue Ocean Program aimed at protecting the country's vital coastal and marine ecosystems. Early this month, the EPA launched a US$3.2 million Wetlands Protection Program focused on restoration, enforcement, and community participation.
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Nathaniel Blama, former EPA Boss, welcomed the mangrove restoration project launched. However, he called for a holistic approach. "While we welcome this, we need a national dialogue on wetland management where all the national actor,s the EPA, Forestry Development Authority, the Liberia Land Authority, and City Municipalities, everyone can come in and participate," he urged.
He pointed out the lack of awareness among these entities as one of the reasons for wetland encroachment in Liberia. "The municipalities have little to raise awareness of the use of the wetland, so the encroachment on the wetland and most squatter rights are given by the municipalities. The EPA doesn't. Public works doesn't. LLA wouldn't. But the municipalities will give squatter rights because of their ignorance."
"There needs to be an increased awareness of all the municipalities around Monrovia. And after that, they can put in place a management plan for some of these areas and start to restore the mangroves."
