Mohamed J Jabang, the environmental quality programme officer of the National Environment Agency (NEA) has confirmed that there has been a welcoming compliance from households that were served with regulation notice during last year’s anti-littering regulation sensitisation campaign.

According to him, a total of 106 improvement notices were served during the campaign and in the follow-up exercise, over 80% compliance was discovered. He observed that some of the compliances were only temporal, as they had discovered during the third wave of the campaign that several people who had once complied with the regulation committed the same environmental offences. “In such situations, we wasted no time in charging the offenders and bringing them to justice,” he said.

Jabang made these revelations Monday during an interview with the Daily Observer in his office at the NEA complex in Kanifing.  He stated that the anti-littering sensitisation and follow-up, as well as the enforcement campaigns, have actually paid dividend hence the rapid growth in the rate of compliance within the campaign areas. “With time, not much environmental nuisances would be apparently visible in these areas if the enforcement exercise continues to gather momentum,” he predicted.

He disclosed that during the campaigns, more that one thousand households were sensitised and a total of 780 compounds were issued with the anti-littering fliers in the Kanifing Municipality. He added that several posters were also affixed at conspicuous public places as a means to spread the gospel of the regulations coming into being.

Environmental hazards
Dwelling on the environmental hazards that the dumping of waste materials in public places can cause to human health, Jabang observed that these have been a common concern during the course of the sensitisation campaign. He said perforation of fences allowing waste water from bathrooms, toilets and other domestic activities are the most common waste waters discharged into public streets. He was quick to add that the indiscriminate wastewater discharged from laundry and other domestic works are also becoming common features.

He however observed that air pollution emanating from fish smoking and burning of combustible waste is also on the rise, which, he said if not controlled, can pose serious threat to public health, the environment and the atmosphere. He then highlighted countless illegal dumpsites in the Greater Banjul Area and urged Gambians to comply with the regulation, saying its enforcement is still on course and anyone found violating it will be taken to court.