Monrovia -The Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) last week assisted the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) in cleaning up a huge mountain of garbage from the Red Light market while in Monrovia many market grounds are lying in filths and covered with huge piles of garbage.
Report by J.H. Webster Clayeh [email protected]
FrontPageAfrica noticed that piles of garbage can be seen in most part of Monrovia, especially in the market places.
Despite rendering assistance to PCC, residents of Monrovia are calling on their Mayor, Jefferson Koijee, to focus on the complexity of problems the city of Monrovia is faced with at the moment.
“Mayor Jefferson Koijee needs to firstly take care of the City of Monrovia before going to clean the City of Paynesville,” Prince Fallah, a resident of Monrovia told FrontPageAfrica over the weekend.
Huge Garbage at Market Places
Like the Red Light market, many market places in Monrovia are engulfed by huge stench making it uneasy for marketers and shoppers to make their way through.
FPA found out over the weekend that dirt bins on all the market grounds in the city of Monrovia, are over filled with wastes. The wastes are now falling all on the streets because the bins have overfilled and running over.
One can hardly see the bins again as the dirt have now swallowed them.
FPA tour also established that the garbage site down Randall Street, Waterside market and the West Point junction among other dumb sites are causing serious health problem for marketers and nearby residents.
Many marketers told this newspaper that MCC delay in collecting wastes at various markets sites in Monrovia.
Momo Kollie sells bags one step away from the huge dirt at the garbage site, down Randall Street, Waterside market.
Kollie told FPA that the dirt gets plenty in the bin and they scatter on the road. He blamed it on the delay of MCC in emptying the bins.
Not too far from the bin is a public toilet. The huge pile of dirt almost makes it impossible for people to get to the toilet down Randall Street, Waterside market.
“Look at the place where the dirt has reached,” Kollie said as he points to the huge garbage that have surpassed the bin.
“We now talk, talk and talk, we are tired. This place never used to be like this but since the beginning of this year the dirt is too much here,” Kollie said.
“During Mary Broh time, the MCC truck used to come here every day to take the dirt but this time around the dirt can be here for almost one month before the MCC truck can come to take the dirt.”
“The whole place smells; we cannot do our business and get good air,” Kollie said.
Another person who smells the stench is Massa Mulbah, 42, a mother of four children. She sells and lives at the end of Randall Street, down Waterside Market.
According to Mulbah, the garbage is a breeding place for rodents and other harmful things.
“Because of this dirt, Mosquito and other insects are too much in our area,” she said.
She added: “If the MCC people can come at least one or two times in a week to clear the dirt from this place the pollution will not be like this.”
Beside the Randall Street, Waterside area, the West Point Junction is another area, which is covered in filths.
FPA tour also noticed that the dirt bin at the site gets over filled and the dirt takes the entire road at the intercession of West Point and Johanson Community.
Mary Sumo is a food vender not far from the garbage. She says the delay in clearing the dirt from the dustbin is causing problem for her business.
“I am losing many customers because of the heavy pollution caused by the dirt,” she told FPA.
According to Sumo, people from nearby community also throw dirt into the dustbin.
Despite people from the nearby communities throwing dirt in the dust bin, the food vender said if the MCC can make it their duty to collect the dirt every evening the place will not be polluted.
At the West Point and Johanson intersection, the single bin is now overwhelmed and the dirt has now closed one the lanes on the tarmac.
‘Paynesville is Dirtier Than Monrovia’
When contacted, the MCC Public Relations Officer, Pekeleh Gbuapaye, said inasmuch as the city of Monrovia faces some serious challenges when it comes to garbage, its situation is far better than that of Paynesville City.
“The matter of fact is that we are not saying Monrovia is clean, but it is not dirty as compare to Paynesville. We are the mother city, so we will do anything to aid our sister city,” Gbuapaye said.
The MCC Public Relations Officer also shifted blame on the Liberia Marketing Association (LMA) for not helping the MCC in cleaning up the garbage.
“The Marketing Association working with the marketers, so they should be able to contribute too. These are people that make more dirt than ordinary residents,” he said.
Despite wanting help from the LMA, he said the team usually collects the dirt from various garbage sites in the city.
“Our team goes and collects the garbage at 10 am. That is not true we have put in mechanism to clean up the dirt everyday”
According to Gbaupaye, officers of MCC are placed at every garbage site.
Our reporter didn’t see or find any security being assigned at those sites when he toured the streets over the weekend.
