Monrovia – It appears that several scape buckets deployed in various communities in and around Monrovia at garbage collection points are more of curse than cure, and some communities have already taken matters into their own hands to protect themselves against health and environmental risk this garbage crisis poses.
The Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) outsourced the collection of solid waste to two companies—Libra Sanitation and Caspian—and divided the Municipality of Monrovia and its environs into two north and south regions. Caspian takes care of communities between Central Monrovia and Somalia Drive and Libra takes care of the communities between Central Monrovia and Congo Town.
These two companies, according to the agreement signed with the MCC with support from the World Bank are to regularly collect these solid wastes from these communities to ensure the sanity, as well as the good health of residents.
Before they were brought onboard, solid wastes were collected by Zoom Lion, a Ghanaian company, whose contract with the MCC was terminated by the World Bank due to fraud.
However, things are not going easy for as per the contract with these two Liberian companies’ mandates.
Garbage are no longer collected on time, the collection points are filled with overstayed garbage and communities are now left to cope with the stenches and effluvia as well as the rats, cockroaches and flies the garbage attract.
One in five deaths in Liberia is due to waterborne diseases and one in eight children die before their fifth birthday due to the same reason, the UNICEF and WHO say. The root causes of these fatalities are due to poor sanitation, unsafe water and unsafe hygiene practice, including hand-washing.
Furthermore, the World Bank estimates that every Dollar spent on the water, sanitation and hygiene sector will translate to $10 in increased economic opportunity and productivity.
With the rainy season still to come to an end, a situation where such garbage crisis persists in these communities only spells doom for relevant communities and an odder sanitation profile for Liberia.
Libra Sanitation confirmed when contacted by FrontPageAfrica that it was facing difficulty in collecting garbage in the communities it has been assigned by the contract it has with the MCC. In a mobile phone chat on Wednesday, an executive of Libra, Valerie Howe attributed the situation to faulty garbage trucks that should transfer garbage from various communities to the Fiamah garbage transfer center.
When FPA reporter visited the center last week there were several trucks being repaired by a band of mechanics preparing tires.
“By the grace of God,” Madam Howe said, “the trucks will get on the road this week.”
FPA also observed that garbage spillage was not only the problem with garbage buckets deployed in communities but also the transfer center itself. Garbage spilled over a broken part on the right side of the center’s fence.
‘Our health is in serious danger’
Madam Youna Curtis, who lives at the corner of Buchannan and Carey Streets, said the garbage site there had placed their health in danger and was causing more mosquitoes in their community.
“Our children can no more sit outside of our houses during nighttime all because of the multitude of mosquitoes from the same garbage site, so I want to call on the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) to please move quickly into our community and help to clean up the garbage,” she told FPA, revealing that she and other residents are in search of a new location to dump their garbage.
Perhaps due to its central Monrovia location, the Buchanan Street-Carey Street garbage collection side might be even in a better situation in comparison with that of the community close to the James Spriggs Payne Airfield.
There, a gutter of decayed and decaying garbage has changed the look of that Airfield community. The site is not even passable, least to mention the stench that fills the air there.
“This garbage has spent up to two years and it looks bad. The dirt has covered the entire road,” said Solomon Williams, who lives in a house not far from the moisture site of the garbage collection.
“You can see garbage all over here and it spends up to two weeks before it is removed because the entire community is using a single bucket to pile garbage,” added Williams, who pointed to a huge pile of spilled garbage from the long scape bucket overlapping on the asphalt pavement with his hands covering his mouth and nose against the offensive odor oozing out.
‘Willing to die for my people’
The situation on the Action Field in Devine Town, Old Road is even worse. Garbage has taken over the entire portion of the asphalt pavement just opposite Liberia Geological Survey of the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy.
Pedestrians are compelled to walk directly on the road face in dodging the pile of garbage, meanwhile risking being hit by speedy vehicles. People playing football on a mini pitch just adjacent the garbage collection point must be willing to pick up the ball from a gutter of decayed garbage, worsened by heavy downpour of rain.
But residents have already found a solution to that problem. They have unilaterally prohibited the dumping of garbage at the particular point.
“The reason why we have decided that dumping garbage here be stopped is that the garbage is giving us hard time in this community—mosquitoes, flies, roaches and other crawling insects are really giving us hard time,” said Mohammed “Action” Sonie, after whom the mini pitch is named.
“The odor from the garbage is also creating health hazard for us in this community so we decided as community dwellers to stop the dumping of garbage here so that it can get the concern of the requisite authority,” he said.
Sonie claimed that the community complaint to the MCC, the township of Congo Town and Representative Julius Berrian but got no redress and so decided to take matters into their own hands.
FrontPageAfrica could not independently verify Sonie’s claims; however, sources at the Solid Waste Department of the MCC said that they were now assessing the challenges with the collection of garbage throughout Monrovia and its environs to begin taking appropriate actions beginning October to curb the garbage crisis.
“This thing is harming us. I think we know the first law of nature is self-preservation; if nobody cares about us we should care about ourselves.”
He said he understands that it is illegal to take law into one’s own hands but stressed that they were ready to bear the full wrath of the law.
“I am one of those who is always willing to die for my people,” Sonie said. “So when I am arrested, I will be set free because I would have committed no crime… to be incarcerated for so many days.”
Some time ago, residents of Gaye Town in the Airfield community, opposite Wroto Town took a similar stance when the garbage bucket there proved to be harmful rather than helpful.
It is highly likely that Sonie will not end up in jail, and that there will be no more dumping on the Action Field again.
Dead body and business
For Lassanah Siryon, a tailor whose shop faces a garbage collection point located on the fence of the Muslim graveyard (Mandingo graveyard) in Gaye Town, Old Road, the impact of the garbage goes more than stench and rodents. It has got an economic implication.
“Of course, yes, it has scared away some of my customers. I received four to five customers a day but they are not coming,” Siryon said when asked how his business was faring with the garbage.
Moreover we wanted to have done a different business here but we can’t because of the garbage situation,” he said.
He said other shops adjacent to his had closed down, and that his plan to start a provision shop had gone down the drain.
“The odor from the garbage gives us hard time. We don’t have the means of getting the garbage out of here,” he lamented, adding, “It is a great embarrassment to us.”
The Gaye Town, Old Road garbage collection point is perhaps the oddest. Placed on the mold-covered fence of the graveyard, the MCC-marked lone garbage-filled scape bucket was surrounded by a pile of garbage enough to fill it an additional three times.
A gutter of decayed garbage has been formed between the bucket and the wall and the gutter even extends up to three yards from the bucket. It has attracted some amphibians, with tadpoles visible from a distance.
And being surrounded by trees—sheltering it from sufficient sunlight—with the quietude due to the presence of the graveyard, it seems the perfect breeding ground for frogs, as well as a repository of mosquitos, cockroaches and rats.
If they come for it on a regular basis—twice a day—it will help because we all, one way or the other, are benefiting from the garbage [bucket],” Siryon continued.
He said it was important that authorities within the community prohibited the nighttime dumping of garbage, adding that it was possible that people could dump dead bodies.
“I came here this morning and saw a dead dog here,” he explained. “I had to climb up; seal the dog in a bag put it in the bucket because when it remained there, the entire place would smell.”
The law no longer holds,” he said in reference to a city ordinance that prohibits the dumping of garbage after 6:00 pm.
Just adjacent the garbage bucket at the Executive Carwash, a garage—Sekou Mulbah Garage—is situated. Proprietor Sekou Mulbah also said his customers had dropped since the pile of garbage there has been frequent recently.
Moreover, Mulbah told our reporter that the garbage was also impeding the effort of apprentices and workers at his garage, as they could not afford to lie underneath vehicles that are brought there for repair.
“Look at the rashes on this back,” Mulbah said pointing his hand to the naked back of an 18-year-old apprentice, Prince Yelley.
Holes and red dirt
Apart from the environmental and health issues associated with various garbage collection points, there is also the issue of the health and wellbeing of the roads on which these garbage buckets are placed.
The earthmovers that put the garbage into the truck to be taken to the transferred center dig big holes at each site, which undermines the asphalt pavement of the roads.
That is the case with Saye Town in Sinkor, Airfield, Action Field and the Executive Carwash at Old Road Junction, nearly all of the sites visited by our reporter. The MCC has already begun filling up those holes with dirt but it is not certain not enough to give those places a facelift as the rain continues to fall.
This story is a product of FrontPage Africa’s environmental reporting program. Writing by James Harding Giahyue ([email protected]), reporting by Macaulay Sombai ([email protected]), Willie N. Tokpah ([email protected]) and editing by Samwar S. Fallah ([email protected])