Officials from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Western Area Rural District Council have sensitised residents of the Jui Community on the need to follow proper waste management procedures to ensure their locality is tidy.
Addressing owners of shops and entertainment centres during the just concluded National Cleaning Exercise organised on the 4th of January, 2020, the Councillor of Ward, 398, Zainab Tejan-Sie informed them that they have realised that residents were using some youths riding tricycles to collect and deposit wastes at prohibited areas such as frontages of the China/Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital, Kossoh Town Cemetery, Freetown Teachers College and underneath Orugu and Hastings Bridges. She urged to them to inculcate the habit of paying for proper collection and deposition of their wastes and refrain from the indiscriminate burning of their accumulated wastes. Madam Tejan-Sie disclosed plans by her council to provide wastes collection and disposal facilities such as Skips, Bins and Tricycles, engage Sanitary Inspectors to enhance the process of wastes collection and disposal and appealed for their cooperation. ‘’The habit of depositing wastes at the aforementioned locations especially at night must stop’’ she warned, saying that a notorious youth found depositing wastes recently on the side of Hastings Bridge at night has been nabbed and preparations are afoot to prosecute him. She encouraged them to always use the appropriate means of depositing their wastes, adding that her institution will leave no stone unturned to bring to book defaulters. A member of the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of cleaning programme in the ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Max A. Konneh, re-echoed government’s profound commitment to developing a safe and sound environment to enhance sustainable national development. He lauded the efforts of stakeholders, especially youths who participated in the cleaning exercise. The high level of compliance on the part of residents in various parts of the country has now significantly reduced the volume of household wastes, compared to the past and appealed for cooperation. He also added that the unnecessary break out of diseases and disasters such as typhoid and flooding as a result of poor sanitary conditions, has also greatly reduced. He said punitive actions will be taken against defaulters and called on them to refrain from habit of flouting sanitary rules. Proprietor of Verola Restaurant appreciated the initiative of government and appealed for the provision enough dump sites and bins at strategic positions to enhance proper disposal of wastes in their locality. During the cleaning exercise, the team observed that the Jui community condition has greatly improved in terms of sanitation as huge piles of wastes are no longer visible on the main streets and roads, failure of residents to pay for proper collection and disposal of their wastes, residents are still in the habit of burning their wastes openly with no recourse to precautionary measures and unhealthy conditions of dumpsite and unsafe manner in which youths were collecting and disposing wastes, among others.
