By Omar Bah
The National Environment Agency, NEA, has expressed concern over the resurfacing of the banned Sniper insecticide. In May last year, the Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides Control and Management Board, announced a ban on Sniper insecticides with immediate effect.
The ban affects importation, warehousing/ stockpiling, distribution, sales and use of the product. The insecticides were found to be used on fish products across major fish landing sites and markets.
However, speaking to journalists on Friday, NEA executive director, Dawda Badjie, said NEA is very concerned about the continued smuggling of the substance into the country, revealing that recently, the agency confiscated dozens of bottles of the banned substance.
Mr Darboe added that dozens of Sniper and other unrecognised substances, were confiscated from 47 vendors around KMC and West Coast Region.
He said some of the chemicals are not even labelled. “This is a serious crime,” he said, adding that those chemicals are not permitted to enter the country.
“We have 328 containers and 677 packets of pesticides, and 21 kilograms of powdered pesticides. This is very worrying and needs the collective effort of all Gambians,” he said.
Mr Badjie said because of the profit associated with the substance, many people are now getting into the business giving total disregard to the ban.
Lamin Jaiteh, registrar of pesticides and Hazardous Chemicals at NEA, said: “It is disappointing that people are reformulating the products and putting them in new containers or giving them other names while the same active ingredient remains.”
