She commended the effort of the government but lamented that dump trucks were inadequate or not placed under specific command to clear the garbage collected from gutters and from around the vicinity. She went on to say that the manner in which dump trucks collected garbage from the Congo market area leaves much more to be desired, citing instances in which one dump truck would arrive and after loaded with refuse would leave promising to come back but never did; which made the garbage collection aspect of the whole process defeatist. She however was of the view that at the next national cleaning exercise her community women and youths could do much more with more equipment and cooperation from all the relevant authorities, noting that women, youths and other interested parties started cleaning the Congo Market and its environs from as early as 6am on Saturday 5th May, 2018.
Earlier in the same Congo Market vicinity, civil society activist Amara Yapo Mansaray of Climate Change Environment & Forestry Consortium, told AYV that his CSO is always happy to work on environmental issues particularly when it involves cleaning the environment for sustainable development. He added that the current administration of President Julius Maada Bio is on the right track to salvage the hygiene and cleanliness of Freetown in particular and the country as a whole.
He lamented however that this is not the first time for the Climate Change Environment & Forestry Consortium to engage in such exercise. According to him, before now, the Climate Change Environment & Forestry Consortium had wrote several proposals to commercial houses, telecommunication managers like NATCOM, the Chinese Embassy and other proposed sponsors to assist the Climate Change Environment & Forestry Consortium carry out cleaning exercises and sensitization on environmental safety, but that they are yet to get positive response.
“It is for this reason why as Climate Change Environment & Forestry Consortium we heartily welcome this initiative by the government of President Julius Maada Bio to clean not only Freetown but the whole country on the first Saturday of every month. He pledged his CSO’s commitment and participation in further cleaning exercises, adding that his consortium’s only wish is that the cleaning exercise is sustained in order to achieve the desired goals which are to maintain healthy and clean environments all over the country.