More Concerns Raised By Buyers, Commuters And Marketers
PHOTO: Buyers, sellers and commuters overwhelmed by garbage and stench
By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com
PAYNESVILLE, Liberia – Shoppers and marketers alike at the Gobachop-Redlight market have again raised serious concerns over the continuing stockpile of garbage in the commercial hub of Monrovia’s Paynesville suburb, which has become a serious environmental hazard.
Pollution and filth unabated at the Red Light Market
This is the latest in a series of reports that this news outlet has been carrying over the past few months about the prevailing sanitary and environmental situation here and in other areas in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia. But yet, this problem persists.
With serious health hazard, air pollution and the burning of never collected garbage is a scene almost everywhere–from the shoulder of the Japan Freeway to the rubbish-infested Red-Light market hub in the Paynesville suburb of the Liberian capital, Monrovia. And this spectacle is just all around. Air pollution here and there, as smoke oozing from the burning garbage is inhaled by thousands of passersby and marketers, with no sign of environmental and health safety inspectors. Air Pollution @ Red-Light Market Area, Regular Burning Of Garbage: Where Is Liberia’s EPA? – News Public Trust
Red-Light is overtaken by a stockpile of garbage which is most of the time burned with smoke polluting the environment, causing respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer. Both short and long-term exposure to air pollutants have been associated with health impacts; and stench with little or no shelter for marketers who continue to have the misconception that they won’t attract buyers because of the exposure to high levels of air pollution.
Speaking to www.newspublictrust.com on Friday, June 2, 2023, marketers explained that the huge garbage is a serious situation that the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) has refused to address over six months ago.
“This garbage is affecting us greatly, we are inhaling air pollution, we may not be affected right now but a few years from now, but a few years from now, we will find it difficult for our health. We have been to the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) and informed them about this situation but to no avail. Sometimes we buy our food and water and eat right in the garbage because we don’t know where to go and sell; this is our farm, where we find ourselves to be,” one of the marketers asserted.
Another marketer in a serious tone explained: “We are kindly asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to come and do their survey and see how we are dying slowly. If we are ill, we will not continue our hustles but if we are healthy in our body, we will look for our daily meals. Our appeal to the government of Liberia is to send these groups PCC, EPA, and LMA so they all can work collectively together and remove this garbage.”
According to some of the marketers here, the garbage has spent over 6 months at the main entrance of the Gobachop Market, a road from Red-Light leading to the Kakata Highway. They added that the stockpile of garbage is also causing traffic congestion for commuters in Red-Light Market.
“Because of this garbage, traffic congestion is along the Gobachop Market; some of us have been selling here for a decade now, whether community dwellers throw dirt here or who so ever throws here, it’s PCC’s responsibility to clean the city. It’s true, and we agreed that community dwellers sometimes help to increase this garbage but we the marketers do this huge garage too. But where is the parking station for the dirt we are having in Paynesville that community dwellers will waste in the garage? Because we remembered a few years ago, we had Heart of Lion and PCC were effective but these days, we are no longer seeing them again,” said Tarious Dee.
Another marketer said: “PCC is not working because we had a serious issue that the Paynesville City Corporation couldn’t address when CICO workers who are carrying on the road construction were hired by UCI Frozen Food to dump dirt to where we are selling. PCC has to work hard and put things in place. We are in elections year, if the government cleans this dirt no problem but if they don’t clean it no problem.”
Peter Okpako, a Nigerian National who sells in Delta Pharmacy at the Red-Light, also criticized Liberian authorities for not putting in swift measures to ensure that Paynesville is clean, saying that it is one of the commercials areas where people from the 15 counties bring their goods and services. He also said that this is where foreign nationals entering this country pass through heading from the three neighbouring West African countries borders.
“You will not see such a thing like this Abuja, because Abuja is the Capital City of Nigeria and Montserrado County is the Capital City of Liberia. Is not good for a stockpile of garbage to be on an International Road because it’s the entrance of the country. Apart from the huge garage here, the government should try to remove marketers from Red Light because it’s an International Road, they should make the Capital City a clean place,” Mr. Opako noted.
He continued: “We need a clean environment, when you get a clean environment, our health will be safe, and we will live long. So if there is no clean environment, we will not live long because it will damage our health, it will damage our lives. Customers always come here to buy medicine for their health. If my customers continue to inhale the wasteful materials from this garbage, they will also be affected. People who are selling in the garage sometimes carry their babies and breastfeed them in the garage.”
Like Mr. Opako, there are scores of other buyers, sellers and commuters going through the Red Light area who are not only upset by the continuing stench that the filth emits, but are dumbfounded that it is business as usual, month in and month out. Authorities of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are yet to intervene or react to the concerns expressed.
When will this picture change, remains a 64-thousand-dollars question.