Decrepit buildings have tumbled and perimeter fences wrenched from the ground after more than a week of rain, sending huge chunks of concrete and building material into the already impassable streets, officials from the ministry of lands and environment told AFP.

"We haven't seen these problems for more than 15 years," a construction worker said as he slogged through the muck to try and salvage a building site.

Five years of international intervention and hundreds of millions of dollars in aid have made barely a dent in the effort to rebuild Freetown, which was considered, before more than three decades of successive coups and military unrest, one of west Africa's most picturesque capitals.

The entire city bears scars from the repeated sieges of Freetown by the Revolutionary United Front as they rampaged their way across the country no bigger than Scotland over the course of a decade.

Bullet-holes pock nearly every one of the colonial-style buildings that line the narrow roads of Freetown's rolling hills, many of which have been looted of all but their external walls, which have deteriorated further under the pounding of this week's downpour.

The driving rain is expected to continue through the weekend.

Forced to abandon their cars, commuters have had to wade through as much as six feet of water, particularly in the west end of Freetown.

Residents in the city center wake and go about their day in ankle-deep dirty water, which has given rise to fears of outbreaks of water-born diseases such as cholera.

"We cannot even put the cooking stove on because its wick is drenched," housewife Mamie Turay said.

Eager to claim some gain from the downpour in a country where most people eke out a living on less than a dollar a day, enterprising youth have taken to serving as people ferries for those unwilling to get their feet wet.

"Over the past two days I have collected about 10 dollars just by standing near the deep side of the road and asking whoever wants to cross to the other side," said Alimmany Conteh, his face creasing into a smile.

"Some people are heavier than others but I bear the strain."

TERRA.WIRE