Monrovia – Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Tamba Koijee says the enumeration exercise launched by the city corporation to locate and track waste is nearing completion.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
Addressing a press conference alongside the management of the implementing entity, All-terrain Services (ATS), on Tuesday, February 19, Mayor Koijee said four out of the 10 electoral districts within Monrovia have been covered and the remaining six is expected to be completed soon.
Despite frantic efforts exerted by past city mayors including Madam Mary Broh and Clara Doe-Mvoko in cleaning Monrovia, the city continues to be overwhelmed with garbage.
Rebranding the “Mary Broh Day” to “Weah for Clean City,” Mayor Koijee made tackling waste his administration’s top priority but low budgetary allocation and lack of proper strategy have been a stumbling block.
However, with this new strategy, the Mayor is upbeat that the problem of instituting a proper waste disposal system will be addressed.
He stated that in addition to tracking and locating waste, the exercise aims at providing a proper address system for homes, public and business areas across Monrovia.
According to him, the exercise will enable the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) has a complete data of households and structures within the city and will guide the MCC in deriving the minimum amount to be paid by residents for their waste disposal.
“Liberia is the only country that we don’t pay for waste. You just take your dirt from your house and put it on the coal tar (asphalt road). We say to you that when we have the data, we will be able to have a full understanding, a proper calculation of how many structures in the various homes. Based on the data, we will be informed to make a sound decision. But people will be asked to pay for their waste,” he told reporters back in January at his first press briefing in 2019.
At Tuesday, February 19 Press Conference in the City Hall, the Mayor noted that upon the completion of the enumeration exercise, the MCC, through the Community-Based Entrepreneurs (CBEs) will embark on primary waste collection at various homes, public and business areas to transfer to the secondary collection site.
The rationale, he noted, is to stop the dumping of waste randomly and carelessly in the streets and other public areas.
He named finance and logistics as fundamental challenges and called for a concerted effort in making the project a success; adding that the MCC has the mandate to undertake several developmental projects, not waste management alone.
“The practice of dumping waste in the streets is not accepted universally. We want to eradicate this mentality and focus on collecting waste from the primary focus points at homes and offices and business areas. And this requires a concerted effort to make it work. There are lots of development initiative the MCC is mandated to undertake, not to only be dump bay hero;” he averred.
Also speaking, the Operation Manager of All Terrain Services (ATS), Edwin Massaley revealed that 38,802 structures have been marked and the exercise is expected to end in March 2019.
Massaley stated that the project has provided jobs for 300 people and when completed will be used as a strategy that will permanently address the issue of waste management.