By Yusufu S. Bangura
People residing very close to the garbage site located along Jomo Kenyatta Road by Pyke Street Junction, Off New England Ville, have on Wednesday told Concord Times that the dumpsite poses serious health and environmental hazards to them in the environment.
They called on the authorities concerned to place an instant ban on people using the land as a dumping site.
One of the residents, Sallaymatu Conteh, told this medium that they have been having sleepless night due to constant air pollution with their homes infested by mosquitoes, thereby causing children and pregnant women to easily get infected with malaria.
She said they have reported the ugly situation to the Freetown City Council (FCC) many a time, but that their complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
Conteh said most times, people dump garbage into the water and that such activity has prevented the free flow of water, adding that during the raining season water enters their houses due to the blockage of the drainages.
However, Environmental and Social Action Officer at FCC, Mustapha Kemokai, disclosed that metropolitan officers had been deployed to watch over the site and arrest defaulters.
He further explained that the trap set by the officers have not catch any defaulter yet, adding that the site would be removed from that area so that the environment will not continue to be a fright because of garbage.
He noted that the site in question was proposed by Council to serve as a station for the recycling of waste, which would have created jobs for people in the community, but such plan didn’t materialize.
