By Awa Sowe
States spend a huge sum of money each year to clean up littered roadways, parks, and coastal areas. In addition to the direct cost of litter removal, litter also harms the environment, property values and other economic activity. The most common types of litter are food packaging, bottles, cans, plastic bags, and paper and tobacco products.
Like many other countries, The Gambia, in an attempt to discourage littering and to keep the environment clean, has over the years introduced varying methods including the enactment of the Anti-littering law and the introduction of mandatory monthly communal clean-up exercise, locally called ‘set setal’. It has been about six years since the monthly clean-up halted with the collapse of the former administration.
Following the announcement last week by Environment Minister Rohey-John Manjang of the resumption of the monthly activity, Gambia Daily spoke to Mrs Mariatou Dumbuya , Senior Programme Officer, Environment Quality at the National Environment Agency (NEA), to explain the rationale behind the revitalization move and to shed light on Anti-littering regulation and Act and the enforcement efforts. According to her the monthly clean-up exercise is being brought back due to “a national call from the general public to remove communal waste from our streets and make destination Gambia clean and green”.
She informed that the agency had held series of sensitisation activities on both radio and television to inform the public about plans to enforce the laws.
She warned that unlike other regulations this one would be implemented to the core. “The Act does not allow any person to throw, place, dump or deposit any litter on any street, road, sidewalk, water or any public place in the country,” she reaffirmed.
Madam Dumbuya opined that littering is not only a public nuisance, but also it causes many other negative environmental impacts. “Litter can harbour disease vectors such as rats, mosquitoes, flies or cockroaches. With such vectors diseases are easily spread to the wider population,” she expounded.
Anti-littering regulation
States can discourage littering through a variety of methods, one of which is to create and enforce criminal penalties that punish unwanted behavior. While all states have some type of litter law, penalties vary widely, based on the amount, type, and location of litter. Many states have also enacted legislation to address littering in certain places, such as public highways, coastal areas and recreational areas.
In The Gambia, the National Environment Agency (NEA) is the institution mandated to implement environmental regulations and laws.
The Gambia enacted laws in 2007 and 2015 to punish anti-social behaviours such as littering, urinating in public and banning the use of plastic bags.
About the regulation Madam Dumbuya said “a person who contravenes the provisions of this regulation commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than one thousand Dalasis or more than five thousand dalasis.
She explained that offenders are served with an abatement notice of 3,7,14 and 21 days depending on the magnitude of the crime and that if they failed to comply they are taken to the courts.
On some of their efforts, the environmental quality expert informed that the agency in collaboration with councils provided the general public with metal and plastic bins for the public to throw liter, but that these bins are often stolen by the public. “To address the situation the agency also introduced the waste dustbins made of care tyres and place them at different strategic locations within the Kanifing Municipality.
