The
heartbeat of our environment has become an eyesore these days as most of the
street junctions and outlets in town are inundated with dirt and all manner of
filthy things deposited there during last Saturday’s set settal.
Although
similar situations were set in during the Jammeh days, the new Gambia under
Barrow seems to be aggravating this manner of entertaining filthy and hazardous
environment in our midst, as since Saturday we have continued to live with
harmful dirt on the streets of our city centre.
When
the ill-prepared-for set settal was announced, people who got the news and
those who later on caught air of the news managed to clear their immediate
environment only to deposit or dump their sacks of dirt and unwanted items at
nearby junctions on the main highways off their homes, thereby creating piles
of garbage that have been lying down there throughout the week to the detriment
of our health and hygienic psyche.
This
ugly sight must be cleared and sanity allowed to prevail, for which the
municipal or city councils and, by extension, the local government and lands
ministry are squarely responsible.
But
why are they not, that the people in the communities would have to live with
the dirt and rubbish and risk being infected by the foul smell, dangerous
pathogens and polluting substances oozing out of the garbage in the localities.
In
fact if there had been strategically located dustbins and large trash cans
across the cities and localities, with regular clearing of dirt, depositing and
piling such rubbish on the streets would not have been the situation. People
would have been using those dustbins and trashcans to deposit their dirt and
rubbish.
But
it seems the government is oblivious of the fact that a nation or society needs
to cater for or have sufficient dustbins and dumpsites across its length and
breadth where the people would deposit or dump their dirt and rubbish for
‘other use’.
We
as a people cannot afford to live without such facilities in our environs, as
it leaves much to be desired and tells a lot about the health and sanitary
consciousness of our government or better still our municipal or area councils.
So
we are pleading with the authorities responsible for health and sanitation and
for keeping the city clean that they are duty-bound to come to the aid of the
people by doing all they could to clear the heaps of garbage on the streets of
our surroundings, and to really ensure our localities are inundated with
dustbins rather than with dirt and filth, which are menacing and life
threatening.
“Keep
the city clean."
The
Point