By Omar Bah

The managing director of the Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) Ousman Jobarteh, has announced plans to engage the community of Sanyang to address concerns related to the ongoing ports expansion project.
Over the weekend, worried Sanyang villagers instructed their lawyer Lamin J Darbo to write to the GPA expressing their concerns over plans to relocate 461 properties and settlements to accommodate the ports expansion project in Sanyang.
The community demands that all facilities of the deep sea port be located on the sparsely settled Tourism Development Area and avoid affecting any settlements in the community.
The community also claimed the GPA “deliberately” kept them “in darkness as there was no way a project of this magnitude will engage the services of a consultancy company to indiscriminately mark and value properties without some sort of a master plan”. “
To avoid “rigorous and extremely expensive legal regime” delineated by Section 22 of the Constitution, Lawyer Darbo said his clients “strongly reiterate and emphatically recommend that all land facilities of the deep sea port be located on the sparsely settled Tourism Development Area after the old Hawba settlement between Sanyang and Tujereng on the coastline.”
He said the government must pay adequate compensation for the affected properties.
Response
Responding to the community’s demands, MD Jobarteh told The Standard yesterday that the GPA recognised the importance of community involvement in port development.
“The GPA is actively engaging the Sanyang community through the VDC with a view to addressing their concerns. In order to ensure that they are adequately represented in the project implementation, the Ministry of Transport has issued instructions, following a joint meeting with the VDC, that the latter will be invited to nominate representatives to serve at the level of the Project Steering Committee chaired by the PS Ministry of Transport.
“This steering committee comprises representatives from all the relevant government stakeholders for the purposes of oversight in the project planning and implementation. Going forward, all engagement with the Sanyang community will be done in collaboration with the VDC to ensure adequate sensitisation for smooth implementation.”
“The engagement will serve as part of GPA’s broader strategy to ensure that local stakeholders are informed and involved in the expansion process, which includes significant investments in new equipment and infrastructure improvements. This approach reflects GPA’s commitment to fostering positive relationships with communities affected by port operation,” he said.