By Edwin M. Fayia, III, edwinfayia@yahoo.com
Credible information corroborated by professionals and reliable engineering firms hinted www.newspublictrust.com that the ELWA, Red-Light and Coca-Cola Factory road construction is at the moment at a very snail pace owing to multiple unexplained reasons.
As the road construction project drags on in Monrovia’s biggest commercial hub in the suburb of Paynesville under the supervision of China International Construction Company (CICO), heaps of garbage piles continue to swallow the five entry points of the Red-Light General Market.
On many occasions the garbage stockpiles, consisting of organic materials, get rotten to the extent that the unbearable odor becomes very offensive, thus generating a lot of public outcry and outrage among the traders, pedestrians and others who are compelled to pass through Red-Light General Market.
Ironically, year-in-year-out, the unending garbage menace has become a perpetual nightmare for the hundreds and thousands of petty traders, foreign and Liberian business entities in this area have seen their businesses seriously disrupted.
Besides, other commercial districts of Duala, Rally Time, Waterside Markets and the slum communities of West Point and Soniewein, situated in central Monrovia and close to slum areas, are themselves playing host to stockpiles of garbage. These are fertile grounds for water and air borne diseases, as rats, roaches and mosquitoes breed in their thousands.
On top of such situations, precious resources from some of the major support partners such as the World Bank, UNICEF and related international nongovernmental organizations are said to continuously go into helping to change the reality. But most often than not, after a while the status quo remains.
Consequently, the stockpiles of garbage are potential areas that continue to play host to hazardous wastes such as biomedical wastes from the various clinics and hospitals. They are dumped there by some unregulated sanitation companies and waste collection groups in Monrovia and Paynesville.
Environment under serious threat
Sadly, monitoring groups set up by past and present Liberian Governments for have for some unknown reasons abandoned such critical roles. On a wider scale, the Liberian environment that plays host to wetlands and their critical biodiversity continues to be under serious threat.
In addition, the vital endanger species underneath the wetlands are also confronted with multiple threats of the thousands of plastic bags and wastes that are detrimental to their existence thus placing more pressures on the Liberian environment in Monrovia and Paynesville.
Interestingly, some of the outspoken environmental advocacy groups established in Liberia few years ago and were vocal and critical of the environmental threats and degradation of the wetlands continue to remain conspicuously silent about such grave threats.
Amid the continuing situation of environmental pollution and the lack of deterrence against the abuse of the wetlands in Liberia, the ruling CDC government designed a major plan in partnership with the Indian government to construct a 4,000-occupant building on the Bali Island in the heart of Monrovia.
Besides, the Liberian government-run environmental agency, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a result of an extensive scientific research work carried out on the Mesurado River or Du River, says that the vital biodiversity in this river is seriously toxic.
Accordingly, the EPA as practical and proactive steps has placed an order for all fishermen and women to desist from carrying out fishing activities in this identical Mesurado River in Monrovia.
However, like many orders in the country, this one continues to be ignored and violated daily, as fish traders are on many occasions seen across Gabriel Tucker Bridge on the Bushrod Island who dock canoes at the Ma Juah General Market in the late afternoon and evening hours in frantic efforts to buy fish caught from the toxic Mesurado River in Monrovia.
Understandably, as a result of public outcries from concerned environmental, conservation and sanitation groups as well as the media, a temporal halt has been placed on such a grave endeavor by the current Liberian Government.