The exercise, according to the villagers, was meant to create a fire belt within the surrounding of the village with a view to prevent the village, the graveyard and the women's garden from bush fire and also with the desire of keeping the village safe and clean.
After the cleaning exercise, young people of the village including those in the Diaspora formed an association “Kataba Youth Association”. The association, they said is geared towards cementing the already existing relationship among the villagers and also work towards the advancement and development of Sabach Kataba village.
Jallo Jawara, chairman of the Village Development Committee (VDC) underscored the significance of the exercise, saying: “Such kind of exercises will go a long way in minimising the risk of bush fire at the village.”
Jawara added: “We used to have this kind of exercises in the village some decades ago. However, for the past 30 years, we have not had such a massive cleaning exercise. Therefore, our people in the Diaspora and those within the Kombo thought it was a good idea to bring it back. We thus decided to mobilise our youths and with financial support from our people in Diaspora, we were able to hold a two days successful cleaning exercise.”
The VDC chairman also spoke on the formation of the association, saying: “This will go a long way in strengthening the relationship among youths and women of the village. I can tell you that there are people that have missed coming to the village for the past two years. However, when the exercise was organised, they left all what they were doing and came and participated in the cleaning exercise. We have Fulas and Mandinkas at the village, but we do everything together and we intermarry. Our desire is to translate this cordial relationship to the future generation to come.”
The village alkalo, Alhagie Sainey Sabally also dwelled on the importance of the cleaning exercise, adding: “The importance of creating fire belts around the village cannot be over emphasised. This will help us to prevent unexpected bush fires from infringing into our village. We are also happy for the fact that this was organised by the young people of the village. This shows that there is unity among them and we want such to continue.”
Alkalo Sabally said the exercise is very important because “if the environment is not cleaned, people’s health will be compromised.” He also described the exercise as a worthy cause.
“The Kataba Youth Association is apolitical. Our objective is to work for the interest of the village. We will work with the VDC members with a view to coming up with initiatives that are for the betterment of the village,” youth leader Ebrima S. Bah said.
Bah emphasised the need for unity among young people, without which, he said sustainable development can hardly be achieved.
