PHOTO: Amidst the stench, health hazard from mountain of garbage and safety hazard, the selling and buying continues unabated
By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com
At the Redlight commercial hub in the Paynesville suburb of Monrovia, both marketers and buyers are constantly exposed to environmental pollution with smoke oozing from mountain of garbage set on fire on a daily basis.
People passing through the area would experience breathing difficulties not only from the smoke but from the stench from the heaps of garbage that have been there for months, yet foodstuff are being sold in the open and even on the bare ground. Going through this transit point, a staff writer of this news outlet remarked: “Where are our Liberian EPA and health and sanitation officials?”
Scientists say air pollution contributes greatly to a number of lung diseases. “Decades of research have shown that air pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter (PM) increase the amount and seriousness of lung and heart disease and other health problems,” says a January 26, 2023 report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Research on Health Effects from Air Pollution | US EPA
In addition to that, many marketers are risking their lives by selling their goods just several feet away from heavy construction equipment, although a government’s mandate was given last year for them to relocate to the multimillion US dollars OMEGA market further down near Mount Barclay.
So, this area has not only become a health hazard but a death trap, with claims and counter claims.
Over the weekend a row broke out over this issue at the Pipeline-Wood Camp Community, as China’s Chongqing International Construction Company (CICO) continues its unfinished road project in the heart of Paynesville and other parts of Liberia.
China’s Chongqing International Construction Company (CICO) is owned by the Chinese government enterprise in Chongqing and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (Group) which is responsible for specialized engineering operations in road network construction around the world.
In 2008, the company and the government of Liberia signed an agreement following the successful completion of the Monrovia major city streets, Vai Town Bridge and the Caldwell road project, and other parts of Liberia. It’s also responsible for the completion of the Redlight-Ganta roads causing a serious death trap in the commercial hub of Liberia, Redlight, and Pipeline-Woodcamp Community but marketers still braved the storm, and are alarmed over the hazardous situation.
In an interview with some marketers on Saturday, March 25, 2023, they explained that the toxic waste which has been ransacked by them is a continuous process that they have engulfed years.
According to them, they have embarked on government agencies the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Paynesville City Cooperation (PCC) to come to their aid.
“We are appealing to the government of Liberia to come to our aid and close the septic tank owned by both Africa Enterprise and Bunty Pharmacy. It’s so embarrassing for us to be smelling feces every time,” one of the markets said.
Another marketer added: “Of course am selling to where the dirt is situated, but if the machine starts its operation, we all will embrace the idea and leave the site, because it’s for our safety. Sometimes we pay money to some leaders of this market to remove this dirt but no head no tail.”
For Madam Klubo Mulbah, the health risk from the stockpile of garbage is the most troubling.
“We are not refusing to leave this site for the machine to operate, we are only appealing to the operator of the CICO machine to help remove this dirt, we don’t have nowhere to go right now, some of us are self-supporters. If we go and sit down at home what will our children eat? Our children need to go to school”, In remarks with one of the Co-operators of the CICO machine, Archive Smith explained to this Reporter that they have filed several complaints to both the Community leaders of Pipeline-Woodcamp and the Liberia National Police (LNP) for marketers to leave the working site but to no avail.
“It’s not our responsibility to remove dirt from the street, it’s the responsibility of the Paynesville City Cooperation (PCC), we are only undertaking this self-initiative project to speed up our work in other to impress our President, George M. Weah. Our responsibility Is to construct road project, we are also calling on state security, the Liberia National Police LNP to work in solidarity with us and remove those marketers from the working site,” Mr. Smith noted.
For his part, the Chairman of Block-A 11-10 Pipeline-Wood Camp Community, Mr. Sam O. Saygar said the dirt has been there by the Paynesville City Cooperation (PCC) since 2017 and also accused Bunty Pharmacy and Africa Enterprise Inc. of allowing their toxic waste to enter in their community, Pipeline-Woodcamp which is a normal routine and a way of life in their environment.
“I came here early this morning, I told the marketers that everybody should leave the site, the machine is about to begin its operations but to my surprise, the operate of the CICO machine called me and informed me that the place is jammed packed with marketers and I decided to come along with him to plead with them to leave the site,” said Mr. Saygar.
“We have engaged several government agencies, first, we visited the Paynesville City Cooperation (PCC) and we went to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but since then, the problem continues to increase in our community. EPA had a joint investigation of both the Community and the owner of Bunty and Africa Enterprise Inc. After they had an investigation with us, we asked EPA to produce a copy of the agreement but they haven’t produced a copy yet,” he added.
However, Mr. Saygar has called on marketers to leave the working site and allow the CICO machine to do its work to help reduce the pollution and prevent the safety hazard.