The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Knifing Municipal Council, The Gambia's biggest municipality in terms of population, Mr. Abdoulie Sanyang, has frowned on the way and manner in which some people indiscriminately dump wastes at both legal and illegal dumping sites within the municipality.
Mr. Sanyang declared that indiscriminate dumping is against the Anti-Littering Act, and Regulations and warned that the council will leave no stone unturned in punishing anyone found wanting.
"People must change their attitudes towards indiscriminate dumping and they must understand that the council has limited resources allocated to waste collection," he stated.
CEO Sanyang was speaking in an interview with our reporter yesterday at his office in Kanifing.
According to CEO Sanyang, despite the fact that the council is utilising 25 tractors in various wards on a daily basis to collect garbage from residences, yet some people do not put together garbage to make things easier, but would wait until collectors go into their compounds.
According to him, they recurrently sensitise the public in managing their wastes and the effects of indiscriminate dumping at homes and dumping sites, yet some feel unconcerned and keep on dumping indiscriminately, especially in the night.
"The council is enforcing the Anti Littering Act by taking some to court for prosecution if caught or found wanting," he revealed.
He noted that indiscriminate dumping has health implications and you never know who would be affected. "A healthy nation is wealthy nation," he said.
He strongly warned those in the habit of indiscriminate dumping to desist from the practice, maintaining that if caught they would face the full wrath of the law.
He posited that the council spends hundreds of thousand of Dalasi on clearing illegal dumpsites and waste collections.
Noting that if wastes are properly handled budget allocations will surely minimise, he said those monies can be used to build schools, markets, and pay scholarships, among others.
"We cannot cover the whole municipality at once, but we are doing our utmost best to see that each and everyone lives in a clean environment," he assures.
