National Roads Authority Steps Up Rainy Season Preparations, Cautions Against Dumping in Drains

By Seedy Jobe

The National Roads Authority has intensified its annual rainy-season preparations, deploying teams across the country to clear drains, open waterways, and maintain culverts to protect the road network from flooding.

In an interview on QTV’s “This Morning” program on Tuesday, Principal Engineer Fatou Kinneh Fofana said the agency begins its work each year just before the rains arrive, calling the task of keeping water off the roads essential to preserving infrastructure.

She said maintenance teams are stationed in every region and remain active before, during, and throughout the rainy season to ensure culverts stay clear and water can pass through without flooding roadways.

One persistent obstacle, she said, is the continued misuse of drainage systems as informal dumping sites. Ms. Fofana described the practice as a long-standing problem that causes blockages and backflow, particularly along high-traffic routes such as the Westfield-Tabokoto road.

“Our drainage system has been used to dump waste, and that is what causes blockages during this rainy season,” she said, noting that government-designated dump sites exist for refuse disposal, yet drains continue to clog year after year, contributing to flooding.

Addressing questions about drainage design, Ms. Fofana maintained that Gambian drains meet required engineering standards. She explained that some drains are open while others are closed, depending on their function, and cited the Westfield-Tabokoto corridor as an example where drain covers also serve as pedestrian walkways.

“I wouldn’t say they are not up to standard,” she said. “But we need to change our ways and understand that waterways are not meant to be interfered with.”

She also sought to clarify a common misconception about the system’s purpose. Road drains, she explained, are designed to keep water off road surfaces and protect the pavement—not to serve as a stormwater management system for homes and surrounding communities.

“We do not have a storm drainage system. We have road drains, yes, but we don’t have a storm drainage system,” she said, adding that when residents divert runoff from rooftops and streets into road drains, the infrastructure becomes overwhelmed because it was never designed to handle that volume of water.

To address flood-prone areas, the authority has launched a pilot dewatering project in Ebo Town, which Ms. Fofana identified as among the communities most vulnerable to flooding. The project is roughly 48 percent complete, she said, and once operational, the model will be replicated in other affected areas.

Ms. Fofana said the authority conducts regular inspections of drainage systems nationwide but stressed that lasting solutions require shared responsibility among residents, local councils, and other stakeholders.

“It’s not people from the NRA that would litter in these waterways,” she said, calling for stronger public sensitization efforts and urging communities to stop dumping waste in drains.