By Amadou Jadama
The chairman of Brikama Area Council has yesterday presided over the launching of the “Seneya Project”, a project designed to achieve a clean West Coast Region, free from waste.
For this project, the council signed a contract with five private companies, namely Jatta and Sons, Setal Gam, Krocom, and Dankuto BMM waste management companies.
This project, according to CEO Modou Jonga, is in line with their 2020 to 2024 strategic plan on waste management and sanitation, and seek to improve waste collection in the short term as well as eliminate indiscriminate dumping of waste.
In his launching remarks, Chairman Yankuba Darboe described the West Coast Region as populous and the most waste producing region in The Gambia. “Unfortunately, until now the region continues to struggle for an effective sustainable solution to the issue of waste management. Today, we are not launching new vehicles for refuse collection procured by Brikama Area Council, but a new project conceived by the Brikama Area Council to provide a sustainable solution to one of the most prolonged problems and challenges facing the people of West Coast Region.
“I encountered these challenges during my campaign for the leadership of this council, and it is often one of the most complained challenges of the residents. In fact, our people have been left to manage their waste on their own,” he lamented.
He said the situation had compelled many of his residents to resort to dumping waste at any available space of convenience to them, which is a grave threat to their environment. He disclosed that others who thrived to have their waste collected regularly, do so at huge financial cost.
“Since taking office less than a month and half ago, my councillors and I have discovered that one of the most demotivating factors for the people of this region is the non-payment or non-compliance of paying their rates and taxes,” he said.
“For this reason, my office had to engage and reach out to the private sector businesses engaged in waste management service, in order to partner with them, in our quest to finding a lasting solution to our waste management debacle,” he added.
He said the project further aims to provide a weekly waste collection service to the piloted areas, which will increase to twice a week in the near future. Darboe said he hopes that the second phase of the project will be launched soon, hopefully, in six months time, which will cover the rest of Kombo Central and Kombo South.
Speaking earlier, Ida Jeng Njie, who represented the Governor of West Coast Region, thanked Chairman Darboe and his staff for the laudable initiative, adding that the project should be the responsibility of everybody, becuase with it, waste problem would be greatly reduced.
