By Makutu Manneh
Sheriffo Bayo Sonko, the transport councillor for the Brikama Area Council, has blamed persistent waste problems at Brikama Market and other public spaces partly on the dumping habits of traders and residents, saying the council continues to struggle with people discarding garbage after collection vehicles have left.
Speaking on Kerr Fatou’s Politic Kachaa program, Sonko said the council has assigned sweepers to Brikama Market and deploys a truck and tractor there daily to collect waste.
But he said keeping the market clean has proved difficult because some traders and residents fail to bring out their waste when collection vehicles arrive. Instead, he said, garbage is often dumped along the road at night, creating new piles after the area has already been cleared.
Sonko said a similar problem exists at the Brikama garage.
“The council has tried to stop the practice and even deployed security personnel, but the problem persists,” he said. “Sometimes at night, people bribe the security in order to dump, and even if you change the security, the same thing will happen again.”
Sonko said the council was trying to make the best use of the limited equipment at its disposal. He argued that waste collection had improved since the current council took office, saying it inherited a system with no vehicles available for the work.
Still, he acknowledged that the council had more to do to improve sanitation across Brikama and the wider West Coast Region.
Sonko said additional waste-collection vehicles would significantly improve the council’s ability to keep up with the volume of garbage being generated. With 20 collection trucks dedicated to Brikama, he said, the persistent waste problem could largely be eliminated across the region.
His remarks place some of the responsibility for Brikama’s sanitation problems on public behavior while also underscoring the council’s continuing shortage of equipment to collect and dispose of waste.
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