The Mayor of Monrovia Jefferson T. Koijee concedes to criticism here that filth has engulfed the capital and surrounding communities as a result of failure by the Monrovia City Corporation collect garbage in the streets.
However, Mayor Koijee notes that though the city is challenged, but the MCC alone cannot do it all.
Koijee’s public admittance came Tuesday, 22 January during an interactive forum with the public and the press, broadcast live on Monrovia City Corporation Television or MCC TV at his office on 1st Street, Sinkor.
“With all the criticisms that dirt has engulfed this city yes; it’s true dirt has taken over, and that is because we at this city corporation [are] challenged; the cleanliness of this city must not rest on the shoulders of the MCC alone, but it should be a collective effort”, he argues.
He says the MCC is taking a holistic approach to addressing the situation saying “that is why we are calling on our partners, and donors to help [with] logistics, and the support to live up to our promises by making this city clean.”
He continues that if people will just sit and criticize the city corporation for dirt in the street without showing any sign of patriotism, then it is unfortunate, noting that part of the approach was to get every citizen involved in the cleanliness of the city by taking the first in their various communities.
Monrovia and its environs have been overwhelmed by stockpill of garbage, creating serious health hazard and environmental pollution that poses grave danger to inhabitants especially children, thereby contradicting Mayor Jefferson Koijee’s much publicized “Green City” campaign.
Residents across the capital have resorted to burning uncollected garbage due to failure of the Monrovia City Corporation under Mayor Koijee to collect waste as part of the MCC statutory functions.
A New Dawn’s investigation across Monrovia and its environs discovers heap of garbage in various communities, breeding flies, cockroaches and rodients amid cooked food centers and market places along the streets.
Meanwhile, Mayor Koijee announces the MCC has embarked on an enumeration exercise within Monrovia aimed at locating and tracking waste across the city.
“As I said few days ago in my first press conference, the issue of the numeration exercise is that the entire city was overwhelmed with waste and the project is intended to engage residents in deriving at a sustainable waste management approach and provide proper address system for homes and business areas.”
According to him, the exercise will enable the MCC to have a complete data of households and structures within the city and will guide it in deriving at a minimum amount [fee] to be paid by residents for waste disposal.
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“Liberia is the only country that we don’t pay for waste. You just take your dirt from your house and put it on the coal tar (asphalt road). We say to you that when we have the data, we will be able to have a full understanding, a proper calculation of how many structures in the various homes. Based on the data, we will be informed to make a sound decision. But people will be asked to pay for their waste,” he discloses.
Mayor Koijee emphasizes the exercise is one of the major projects under the “Weah for Clean City Campaign” initiated by his (Koijee) administration, which is expected to cover 10 of the 17 electoral districts in Montserrado County, including districts Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen and Sixteen, respectively.
-Mayor Koijee concedes to critics
By Lewis S. Teh –Editing by Jonathan Browne
