Dr. Isatou Touray was speaking on Wednesday during National Environment Management Council (NEMA) meeting held at Sir. Dawda K. Jawara conference centre.
Acting as the chair to the council, Dr. Touray maintained that these two factors hampering sustainable environmental management combine with the poor enforcement of existing environmental legislations.
“Environmental issues such as land degradation, biodiversity loss, loss of forest cover, coastal erosion, ineffective waste and pesticides management can severely hamper the development of The Gambia if the situation is left unchecked.” she said.
She thus assured that the government of The Gambia would review the existing acts on the NEMA and strengthen its institutional and regulatory frameworks on environment.
Due to the country’s geo-physical condition, coupled withits climatic extremes, and high degrees of exposure and vulnerability,she maintained that the country is prone to a wide range of hazards including flash floods, windstorms, disease outbreak amongst others.
The vice president thus called on Gambians to ensure a clean environment so as to ensure a clean Gambia.
For his part, Lamin Dibba, minister of Environment and Natural Resources called for attitudinal change towards the environment, saying‘no economy can be sustained without environment’.
“Environment is one of the most important portfolios because without a fertile land, a land which is free of pollutants, it would be difficult to have food systems that would be healthy for our people.”
Minister Dibba was however quick to add that environment is important but that so long as ‘our attitude remains’, it can have consequences on our lives and livelihood.
“Section 6 of the National Environment Management Act, which was established in 1994, has listed the membership of the National Environment Management Council and the objective of the agenda is to recognise the importance of ministries, whose presence is necessary in the council.”
In response to the President Adama Barrow’s call for all political parties to work together in fighting coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic in The Gambia, the All Peoples’ Party (APP), under the leadership of Alhagi Gumbo Ali Touray, donated sanitary materials to various communities in the West Coast Region.
Abdoulie Njai, a native of Banjul Lancaster who has been active in community voluntary service and charity work throughout his life has vowed to address youth unemployment, issues of women among others.
An ex-officer at the Criminal Investigations Department of The Gambia Police Force recently told the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that those responsible for the killings of 51 West African migrants deserve no forgiveness and should instead face the full brunt of the law.
State House, Banjul, 22nd December 2021: The Public is hereby informed that His Excellency President Adama Barrow, acting under section 76 of the 1997 Constitution, is pleased to declare Monday December 27th, 2021 and Monday January 3rd, 2022, as public holidays throughout The Gambia.
