By Aji Fatou Jammeh
The Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) last week launched an initiative that will see to the distribution of 10, 000 waste bins among communities within the municipality. Authorities say the initiative is meant to accelerate the realisation of their waste management strategic goals and targets; that it is also in line with their vision of creating a ‘zero waste’ municipality.
The initiative is under the Kanifing Environmental Transformation Programme (KETP) project, which aimed to use a sustainable focus on new integrated waste management approaches to drive environmental, social and economic transformation in the lifestyles of Kanifing Municipality residents.
The 10,000 waste bins distribution exercise is the first phase of the “1 bin per household” initiative, that will be distributed to 25% of 35,000 communal households and 500 business operators within the municipality. An additional 25,000 bins are targeted to complete the waste bin initiative.
The lord Mayor of Kaninfing Municipality, Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda, took the opportunity to thank the European Union (EU), through its Ambassador in The Gambia, for their valuable support in funding the (KETP) project, with a grant of 3 million Euros.
“This project is one of our flagship project initiatives, on environmental, social and economic transformation of the Municipality. I also extend our sincere appreciation to our implementing partners, Peterborough City Council in the UK and its Economic Development Agency, Opportunity Peterborough for their support to the implementation of the KETP project under its sustainable cities financing mechanism,” he said.
The project, he went on, will help transform waste management approaches in the Municipality from pollution, health and environmental challenge to become a sustainable economic opportunity that strengthens urban governance, inclusive service delivery, and sustainable resource management.
On the transformative agenda of the KMC, the Mayor highlighted progress under his leadership including revenue increase, building of markets, and plans such as road projects, solid waste processing plant and affordable housing
Other speakers included Deputy CEO Kajali Janneh; and Kaddy Daboe, a beneficiary in which both of them hailed the project.
