Monrovia-Nearly fifty (50) media trainees of the ‘Peter Quaqua School of Journalism’-PQSJ were Saturday, June 25, 2016 barred from entering the grounds of the Wein Town Disposal site situated at Bernard Farm, Paynesville, the outskirt of Monrovia.
The Wein Town Garbage site holds daily huge portion of the waste in Monrovia and its environs, which is causing serious health hazard to residents of the area.
The student journalists including executives of MediaAid Foundation were told by some workers at the Wein Town Disposal site that unless they get a Permit from the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), they could not be allowed to tour the site.
In a Statement issued Sunday, June 26, 2016, MediaAid Foundation confirmed that the students’ journalists chose the dumping ground as one of the areas for their annual media field trip to mainly highlight how the dirt is being managed in the midst of a crowded community, like Bernard Farm.
However, some residents who were interviewed complained that the dump site is breeding mosquitoes and other insects daily in their homes.
The site is one sanitary landfill that was commissioned by government through the Environmental Protection Agency, but analysts believe that one sanitary landfill like Wein Town Garbage Site cannot accommodate a population of more than 1 million residents including businesses and other fast-generating factors per person or entity.
However, those at the garbage site told the students journalists that they were not clothed with the authority to speak to media personal on the status of garbage site but rather the Monrovia City authority.
Meanwhile, MediaAid Foundation, owner of Peter Quaqua School of Journalism Executive Director, Titus Tokpah has expressed disenchantment over the denial of students to tour the Wein Town Garbage site, describing it as a denial of information.
At the same time, the student journalists have inspected the ongoing construction of the Omega Market and the National Toiletries owned by Businessman Fomba Trawally.
According to the communication, though the Omega Market construction is yet to be fully completed, progress has been made including the roofing of the main facility.
Government through the Liberia Marketing Association has since exerted effort to relocate marketers from the highly crowded Redlight market to the Omega Market ground, in an effort to decongest the site which is creating serious traffic congestion on a daily basis.
Street peddlers have on several occasions resist removal from the main road in Redlight Market after several attempt was made by market authority as well as the launch of the market by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
On the status of the National Toiletries, Businessman Fomba Trawally informed students of the Peter Quaqua School of Journalism of his plan to invest a little over five million United States dollars to expand the company.
Every year, the Peter Quaqua School of Journalism takes its students on media field trips to help evaluate their news gathering skills in their quest for quality journalism in Liberia.
The journalism school credited by the Board of School Accreditation of the Ministry of Education is named in honor of Peter Quaqua, current president of the West African Journalists Association-WAJA in support of press freedom.