NEA, SONAGED team up to address Gambia’s waste challenges

SONAGED is a government parastatal responsible for waste management in Senegal.

The MoU, signed on Wednesday,  was intended to prevent and ameliorate the numerous negative health and environmental impacts associated with poor waste management, particularly in urban settlements.

Dr Dawda Badjie, executive director of NEA,  stated that waste management challenges pose a problem that adversely affect human health and the environment thus needs to be solved.

The idea of the MoU was cultivated  from discussions by both countries’  environment ministers at last year’s COP meeting in Dubai.

Dr Badjie said that during COP28 in Dubai, The Gambia through the Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, expressed interest in partnering with SONAGED in waste management, considering the level of advancement by the Senegalese government in addressing the challenge.

He said they did a presentation on issues related to waste management and how Senegal does it and the environment minister tasked the NEA to work with their Senegalese counterparts for effectual implementation in The Gambia. “If they are able to do it, why can’t we do it as a country,” the NEA executive director said optimistically.

SONAGED’s director general Khalifa Ababakar Sarr said the components of the agreement were vast and ambitious, because they covered the essentials of their common struggle for a healthy environment.

As part of the agreement, he explained, SONAGED would provide technical assistance for the implementation of integrated waste management infrastructure, train their operational  teams, strengthen the capacities of their institutions and develop and implement effective regulation policies to manage waste.

Saying he was enthusiastic about the partnership, Mr Sarr emphasised that the collaboration would pave the way for a more sustainable, eco-conscious future, benefiting both nations for generations to come.

In a statement read on behalf of the environment minister, permanent secretary Ebrima Jawara extended appreciation to the government and their Senegalese counterparts for their efforts in successfully realising the MoU.

Researches have it that 22,800 tonnes of plastic waste was generated in 2021, and an estimated 17,200 tonnes of plastic waste leaked into the environment, according to one of the presentations marking the MoU.