By: Ilyasa Baa
The garbage site located along Jomo Kenyatta Road by Pyke Street Junction, has severely suffocated residents of New England Ville in the West End of Freetown. The residents have called on authorities concerned to place an instant restriction on people from using the land as a dumping site.
Residents said they have been having sleepless nights due to constant air pollution and invasion of mosquitoes into their homes causing children and pregnant women to easily get sick with malaria.
Abu Bakarr Sesay told A-Z Newspaper that they have reported to the Freetown City Council many times since they are in charge of garbage collection in the municipality but the situation does not improve. He therefore, called for a need for enforcement by Council so that residents as well as workers start enjoying the fresh air they used to inhale.
The Environmental and Social Action Officer of the FCC Mustapha Kemokai, disclosed that Metro Police officers had been deployed to watch over the site and arrest defaulters. He explained that the trap set by the officers have not caught defaulters yet, adding that, the site would be removed from that area so that the environment does not continue to be an eyesore because of garbage.
He noted that the site in question was proposed by Council to serve as a station for the recycling of wastes which would have created jobs for people in the community but such plan did not materialized.