According to community people, the act of Makeni City Council did not only has a health implication, but social and economic disadvantages as neighboring communities including Makeni have shied away from them due to the stench or offensive odor and swarming of house flies emanate from solid wastes in their locality.
Pa Santigie Masimbo Koroma, village headman expressed his anger over the poor sanitation in their community which according to him, Makeni City Council is responsible for their improper hygiene. He continued that there is no legal arrangement between his people and council; and therefore referred the act to land grabbing. Pa Santigie Koroma went further to state that the solid waste is not generated by them, but by thousands of households in Makeni which in reality makes the disposal an environmental injustice to their community as air and water pollution are evident. He also highlighted the deplorable road network which he confirmed was caused by heavy duty machines of council plying the route of their community.
Fatmata Tarawally mentioned the high presence of methane (organic gas) produced by the waste which according to her has resulted to difficulty breathing as the gas happened to be a pollutant to the environment. She spoke on the illegality of waste disposal in their community and emphasized that there are several health related issues connected with the dumping site and among them is the swarming of house flies leading to cholera outbreak at some points in time.
Also among those who expressed his displeasure on council’s unhygienic activity in their community was 10 years old Alpha Koroma who stated diseases related with the indiscriminate dumping of solid wastes in their locality; and these include diarrhea, cholera, malaria and other illnesses connected with poor hygiene.
Almost the community in its entirety frowns at this poor sanitary condition and therefore urging authorities of the Makeni Municipality to henceforth desist from dumping solid wastes in their locality so that healthy atmosphere will once again be restored.
They affirmed that if the unhealthy and illegal solid wastes disposal continues, the community will be left with no alternative but to seek legal redress with council.
Responding to these claims, the Information, Education and Communication Officer – Makeni City Council accepted the overdue stay at Pate Bana Masimbo dumping site. Emmanuel Samura went further to state that council is using Pate Bana Masimbo as a temporal disposal site and that the site will be abandoned soonest whilst the wastes will be recycled into organic fertilizer when the € 2.6 Million DFID sponsored project on waste management commenced.
