Titus W. Tokpah, Sr.
(Candidate.) Master’s of Public Administration with emphasis in Public Sector Governance
Cuttington University School of Graduate & Professional Studies
Oldest Congo Town, Monorovia, Liberia
INTRO.
Across the globe, solid waste disposal inclusive of its composition is becoming more complicated, especially for least developed nations. In Liberia, plastic and other eatable wastes pile our streets and communities daily. All of these challenged our various municipalities like the Monrovia City Corporation, Paynesville City Corporation, etc…
These are public entities solely responsible for waste management in and around Monrovia but their efforts to rid the streets of dirt are making zero impact (City Alliance, 2021).
Series 4 of “Build-up to 2023” is focusing on how we as Liberians, mainly people of voting age, can make the issue of waste control as one of the top issues before, during and after our election year.
Political candidates and other various state actors should be made to understand that a ‘green environment’ is a must, and they must lead by example by getting the country, especially the one capital city out of dirt. As a country, let’s demand the Weah’s administration and all political stakeholders including the opposition to begin to put their acts together on how they can or intend to effectively manage wastes in our various communities, beginning with Monrovia and its environs.
WASTE MANAGEMENT, AN ELECTION ISSUE
GCCA+ (2019) seriously emphasizes that solid-waste management is now a very curcial public health menace not just in Monrovia, but across most urban communities of Liberia. It is even getting worse now since we are into the rainy season; community dwellers have no proper disposal site as they throw and burn wastes along their homes, alleys and streets. When sewages burst, it leads to outbreaks of cholera, diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases.
With these challenges coupled with the high level of waste piling our streets and communities, making waste control an election matter is just as important as the economy. Let’s get our political leaders, the president, legislators and all those opting for public offices to account by taking meaningful actions towards waste disposal.
Of late, I was too appalled when I over- heard that most of the bathrooms/watch rooms at the Capitol Building down town Monrovia are locked up only because of filthy condition. Capitol Building is without proper water supply despite its huge budget line in the fiscal budget 2022. The public must hold these elected leaders of ours accountable for their actions and in-actions at the next ballot box come October 2023. Those seeking elected public offices must make clear their thoughts on the issue of waste management because this is tied to the image of the country.
WASTE MANAGEMENT, AN UPHILL TASK
Monrovia alone is confronted with a rising population growth. So, controlling waste remains a serious task for the Monrovia City Corporation-MCC. The city has a little over 1.5 million inhabitants, a 3.43% increase since 2020. Largely, urban population in Liberia has increased by nearly 71% since the end of the civil war, because more people migrated from rural counties to urban areas, particularly Monrovia and suburb.
Certainly, urbanization is causing increasingly poor environmental conditions, particularly in urban zones. There are high costs and challenges in gathering huge quantities of waste produced by households and businesses, thus, building-up a significant amount of uncollected and haphazardly disposed solid waste in Monrovia. Meanwhile, our pollution problems, including solid waste exist because of the complexities in industry, government agencies, and in the public as a whole.
CONTROLLING WASTE
Effective waste management strategies depend on local waste features, which vary with cultural, climatic, and socioeconomic variables, and institutional capacity. Similarly, waste management is even becoming regionalized and formalized. Industrialized nations, where citizens produce far more wastes than other citizens, they try to manage waste formally at a municipal or regional scale. In less-industrialized nations, where citizens produce less waste, which is mostly biogenic, both formal and informal actors manage the waste.
Many waste management policies, technologies, and behaviors provide a variety of environmental benefits, including climate change mitigation. Key waste management challenges include integrating the informal waste sector in developing cities, reducing consumption in industrialized cities, increasing and standardizing the collection and analysis of solid waste data, and effectively managing increasingly complex waste while protecting people and the environment.
For us in Liberia, we need to localize waste management by supporting SMEs in waste collection, increase awareness on domestic waste management and encourage community dwellers to sign up to any of these SMEs to properly collect and dispose their waste.
CONCLUSION
Yes, solid waste disposal poses huge complications, particularly for Liberians. Today, our streets and communities are heavily challenged by improper wastes disposal. Municipalities in charge of solid waste management often cry for lack of adequate support, giving reasons why the garbage is taking over the country.
This Article: “Build-up to 2023” has further broaden or widen public discussion on poor waste management in the country, stressing the less effort of various municipalities including the Monrovia City Corporation. It acknowledges the significant role of central government and all political stakeholders in the management of solid waste. We challenge public office contenders to put forth their ideas on the effective and efficient collection of garbage throughout the length and breadth of Liberia. Together, let’s make waste management a top election issue come 2023!
Ref.
GCCA +. (2019). “The huge fight of a small country against poor waste management”. Retrieved from www.gcca.eu/stories
City Alliance. (2021). “Greater Monrovia Solid Waste Management Baseline”. Retrieved from https://www.citiesalliance.org/resources