Welcome To Providence Island
Photos by News Public Trust-Saturday, October 14, 2023
NEWS ANALYSIS By Frank Sainworla, Jr., fsainworla@yahoo.com
Gorée Island from where slaves from Africa went off to Europe and America plays host to thousands of foreign and local tourists every year, netting millions of US dollars for the Senegalese government. While on the other hand, the historic Providence Island here in Monrovia, where freed slaves arrived from America in the early 1800s, greets visitors with heaps of garbage.
At the same time, the Mesurado River, which this Island sits on, has now virtually been turned into a garbage dump, with heaps of garbage floating over this River which is now being covered by algae, as you can see in pictures taken on Saturday, October 14, 2023 while in the area. And unlike Gorée Island, this historic Providence Island is unable to generate thousands let alone millions of US dollars from tourism year-in-year-out.
However, authorities from the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seem to be either unable or reluctant to move in to clear the sanitation mess. Even after the well-publicized Bi-Centennial national celebration heralding the Providence Island’s historic role in the founding of Liberia 200 years ago, no major change has been seen; either on the sanitation front to attract tourists to boost the country’s grossly underdeveloped eco-tourism sector.
Both Gorée and Providence Islands are listed in the World Heritage Center of UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Lying 3.5 km off the coast of the Senegalese capital, Dakar, “Gorée testifies to an unprecedented human experience in the history of humanity. Indeed, for the universal conscience, this “memory island” is the symbol of the Atlantic slave trade with its cortege of suffering, tears and death,” Island of Gorée – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
For most first-time visitors to Dakar, like this writer back in 2008, a visit to this historic small Island is just about the first excursion trip on their itinerary.
“The Island of Gorée is now a pilgrimage destination for the African diaspora, a foyer for contact between the West and Africa, and a space for exchange and dialogue between cultures through the confrontation of ideals of reconciliation and forgiveness.” Island of Gorée – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Like Goree Island, Liberia’s Providence Island has also been designated as a World Heritage Site, but its tourism potentials are yet to be developed and harness by both the immediate past and present regimes. But unlike the past regime, the Mesurado River, which enters into the Atlantic Ocean, which this historic Island has virtually turned into a huge garbage bin with wastes littering the shores of the Island. Visitor walking along of the banks of Providence are unfortunately greeted by stench.
“Providence Island, formerly known as Dozoa, is located approximately 500 -600 meters away from the bar mouth of the Atlantic Ocean. The Island has both hydrological and geophysical characteristics that define the western fling of the Mesurado or Doo River. The island has sparsely distributed mangrove swamps at its south-eastern end. Providence Island, from an aerial view present a geophysical shape of a guitar with a land mass of 11.22 acres surrounded by the Mesurado River and Stockton creek.” Providence Island – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Poor sanitation- a national emergency in Liberia
In fact, the Mesurado River the Providence Island sits on is environmentally polluted.
Few years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned Liberians not to eat any fish or shrimps from the Mesurado River, which has over the years become seriously polluted and unsafe for usage.
This is so because EPA authorities say fish and other species from this River have proven to be poisonous and they are warning the public that they are not good for human consumption.
A prominent environmental watchdog group, Green Advocates International earlier this year criticized the “EPA for failing to implement laws regarding the environment such as a little unknown and rarely used law, The Administrative Procedure Act of Liberia (The APA)”.
According to a FrontpageAfrica newspaper of August 25, 2023, Green Advocates spoke of the need to hold the EPA accountable for the high degree of environmental pollution in the Liberian capital and areas across this West African country.
“As a way of holding the EPA accountable to its statutory obligations and responsibilities of guaranteeing a clean, safe and healthy environment for all Liberia, Green Advocates International, Liberia premiere public interest environmental law and human rights organizations undertook a process not only to make inquiries concerning the EPA statement that the river is not safe and that the fishes and other resources are poisonous but offered it services to collaborate with the EPA to know the extent of the pollution. But those offers and overtures were ignored by the EPA,” FPA reported.
As Liberia is currently in a state of transition following last Tuesday’s presidential and legislative elections, final results of which are yet to be officially announced by NEC, robustly tackling the serious sanitation problem is one of the challenges the next elected regime will have on their hands.
But if it is to be swiftly and effectively addressed, the political leadership must must first “be ashamed” of the poor sanitation condition, a Liberian Christian cleric said some time ago.
All this is happening around the Providence Island in a period when there are reports of a rise in the tourism industry globally.
Although the Russian-Ukraine war has undermined the pace of global economic recovery in which tourism was affected to some degree for four months in 2022, there has been growth in the tourism sector in many countries around the world, including in Africa.
“The latest survey among the UNWTO Panel of Tourism Experts shows a downgrade in confidence levels for the last four months of 2022, reflecting more cautious optimism. Despite growing challenges pointing to a softening of the recovery pace, export revenues from tourism could reach USD 1.2 to 1.3 trillion in 2022, a 60-70% increase over 2021, or 70-80% of the USD 1.8 trillion recorded in 2019.” Tourism Recovery Accelerates to Reach 65% of Pre-Pandemic Levels (unwto.org)
Government authorities have to understand that local and foreign tourists will not be attracted to the Providence Island in such an unsanitary state of its surroundings.
When two Western Ambassadors—European Union’s Laurent Delahousse and US’s former Ambssador Michael McCarthy– alarmed over the poor sanitary situation with heaps of garbage littering areas around Monrovia, City Mayor Jefferson Koijee retorted that he was not “dumpile hero”. That is, he was not employed as street cleaner.
Whoever’s responsibility it is, one thing is clear: whatever the work is already cut out for whichever party/candidate that will be declared winner of the October 10 elections to swiftly and effectively contain the poor sanitation situation and treat it as a national emergency.
Indeed, the historic Providence Island is just one case in point. There are numerous other sites both in central Monrovia and the city suburb, such as national cemeteries that have been littered with garbage, thus not paying respect to our dead compatriots. Desecration Of Our Cemeteries Continues Unabated! – News Public Trust
The eco-tourism and other potentials are there for boosting of tourism in Liberia. So far, it has been more words than deeds. Authorities say one way to do it is efforts to establish an autonomous National Tourism Bureau/Agency and by crafting a new strategy for growth of the sector.
But many cynics would say, environmental pollution and the poor state of sanitation must be put on the front burner. And the next leadership must first begin with the rudimentary things which includes cleaning the mess around the historic Providence Island, as the Bible says, “cleanliness is next to Godliness”. Exodus 40:30-31