Jarra West chief calls for behavioral change on environment

Head chief of Jarra West has called on the people of his community and the entire country to consider attitudinal towards the environment by stopping the use of plastic bags in a bid to provide better health for the people, domestic animals and the biodiversity.

Alh. Yahya Jarjusey warned that the Anti-Littering Regulation and the Ban on Plastic Bag Order 2015 are laws and regulations designed to protect human health, biodiversity and the environment.

He made the statement after a meeting with NEA officials during their regional sensitization tour of LRR by the Agency`s Environmental Education and Communication Unit and its liaison officers to create awareness through focus group discussions with the Regional Governor, Area Council, District Chiefs, village Alkalolus, community members and a radio sensitization phone-in programme at Soma FM.

The tour availed the NEA team to meet and discuss with relevant stakeholders in the region for them to take stewardship of their own environment and to raise peoples` low understanding on environmental issues.

Chief Jarjusey called on people to desist from negative practice of digging soaker ways outside their compounds (in the street) for waste water and warned that any person, tenant or compound owner who allows his/her waste water into the street in one way or the other will be taken to courts without delay.

He however told the NEA team that the negative effects of poor sanitation in the communities will have serious negative impact on health and the surrounding environment and if the trend continues, every inhabitant in the country will be adversely affected directly or indirectly.

Recounting on the antagonistic negative impact of plastic bags, the District Chief revealed that ingestion of plastic by herds has shattered his hope after he lost over four heads of cattle, and many other farmers too shared the same fate as their domestic herds ingest plastic bags.

The Jarra chief reported that he was having two machines that produce water in plastic bags, but when the ban on plastic bags came in 2015, he immediately stopped the business and sold the machines. He said the business registered heavy loses financially during the process but he preferred the losses than to go against the laws of the country.

He dismissed the indiscriminate dumping of waste at street corners and junctions, but said they should be taken to designated waste collecting points. He also called on the Area Council too to help provide them with waste containers, dustbins, and other waste collecting equipment for easy facilitation of the cleansing process.