The Chief
Executive Officer of Kerewan Area Council has disclosed that the dream of
sustainable development cannot be achieved without a positive holistic move
towards waste management and disposal.
Tamba Kinteh revealed this during the launch of the Council's waste management strategy in Kerewan that is tailored to suit waste management and disposal problems in the North Bank Region's developing towns and Lumo villages. He said their newly established strategy aims to complement the efforts of the monthly Operation Clean the Nation initiated by the head of state President Jammeh.
In the North Bank Region, CEO Kinteh said his council would be rotating every Saturday to developing towns or Lumos where they would work hand in glove with communities to clean their environment. "We would want to involve all community members as potential stakeholders by bringing the weekly activities to their doorsteps in a bid to help them be responsible for the cleaning of their own environment".
In their expansion efforts towards waste management, CEO Tamba Kinteh disclosed that the council has spend thousands of Dalasis on the purchase of cleansing working materials including wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, garden forks, gloves and masks. He further revealed that they would hire tractors to collect waste during their routine cleansing activities or set-setal's in the developing towns and Lumo concentrated areas.
For his part, the council's development officer, Lamin LM Marr, said it is the primary responsibility of the council to provide basic services for the tax payers. He further revealed that the newly developed waste management strategy will address waste or garbage collection in all the growth centres like Farafenni and Kerewan, and other expanding communities and Lumo centres.
He disclosed that the council has two vehicles running the services of waste collection and disposal, but recently he said the other vehicle had broken down and therefore need to be serviced. Marr said that as waste management, collection and disposal is very expensive, the council is therefore appealing to the UN system, NGOs and other international and philanthropist organisations to help and provide it with tractors, bins, trailers and other materials that would enable their waste management process.
The National Environment Agency, being the institution tasked with the co-ordination of waste management, will also be targetted by the with a view to initiating a fruitful collaboration and system of co-operation. Bakary Seckan, the council's financial controller, who is co-ordinating these developments, appealed to all communities in the North Bank Division to take this noble initiative as their own. "A clean environment hosts healthy people," he said. He noted that the issues and needs of the taxpayers are the highest priority on their agenda and their satisfaction in terms of service delivery is their pride.
