By Fatou Sanneh
The Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Mrs. RoheyJohn-Manjang has announced that the National Environment Agency in consultation and collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources with the approval of His Excellency President Adama Barrow has agreed to bring back the monthly clean-up exercise commonly known as ‘Set-settal’.
Hon. Minister John-Manjang made the announcement during the media training for journalists organised by the National Environment Agency on Monday 16th January 2023.
The proposed date for the exercise is scheduled for Saturday 28th January 2023, starting from 9: 00 am - 13: 00pm. The exercise is in response to the demand of the public in keeping the nation clean for a healthy livelihood.
Set-settal was conducted during the former regime however it was abandoned after the Borrow administration took the mantle of leadership in 2017.
Hon. John-Manjang stated that the focus of the ‘Set-settal’ is going to be in the Greater Banjul Area which has more waste management issues.
Hon. John Manjang solicits support from all the key players, especially the councils and municipalities. She called on everybody to participate in this all-inclusive nationwide cleaning exercise, stating that “it is our collective responsibility to keep our environment clean.
She affirmed that the country is faced with several challenges in waste management and the negative implications of unattended waste sanitation and the anesthetics values of the surrounding environment. “In that vein, the country enacted the Anti- littering Regulation in 2007 which is meant to limit indiscriminate littering in the country. This was followed by the ban on Plastic Bag Order 2015 which prohibits the importation of plastic, sales, manufacture and use of plastic bags in the country. All of the efforts were supplemented by monthly cleaning across the country to keep it clean and healthy,” the Environment Minister remarked.
