Several communities in the Greater Monrovia area were beneficiaries of massive clean-up exercises organized and supervised by the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) in collaboration with the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) and the Paynesville City Corporation, and with support from the European Union through Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program Office. The month-long exercises, which were concluded over the weekend, affected eleven communities in the MCC and PCC regions.
Speaking to journalists at the launch of the campaign in Monrovia, the Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst of Cities Alliance, Senjovu Andrew, described the initiative as part of a broader effort by Cities Alliance aimed at addressing the solid waste management problem in the Greater Monrovia area covering Monrovia, Paynesville and the townships within the metropolitan area. He said solid waste management poses a huge challenge especially in the cities, and there is a lot that need to be addressed.
“We are working on the primary solid collection services, working directly with community based enterprises (CBEs) and the city’s corporations to ensure adequate collection of solid wastes from the household to the skip-bucket; then the city’s corporations now support us to collect from the skip-bucket to the holding site, and subsequently to the landfill,” Andrew said.
The community awareness and clean-up campaign exercise is part of a contract grant awarded to the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) by Cities Alliance under its solid waste management project, “Delivering Climate Resilient Solid Waste Management Services in Greater Monrovia through Community Based Enterprises”. Under the six-month project CEMESP was to carry out six key milestone activities, including the just-ended awareness and community clean-up exercise.
The exercise, which gave a massive facelift to several communities in the metropolitan area, benefitted eleven communities that had been considered by the city’s corporations as seriously challenged with solid waste. Five of the beneficiary communities are located in the PCC area, while six were selected from the MCC region. Communities benefitting from the PCC region include LBS, SKD, Cow Field, Pipeline and Wood Camp, while those from the MCC region include Gaye Town, Wrotoe Town, Ducor Hotel, Soniwein, Clara Town and the Island Clinic.
Several community volunteers were recruited by the leaderships of each of the communities for the clean-up exercises. Each of the selected communities received a consignment of working materials, including wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, grass cutters, hand gloves, brooms, reflective vests and nose masks before the start of the clean-up exercises. The campaign was preceded by community forums, at which time community members received training in proper solid waste management practices and the importance of community-based enterprises (CBEs) in the solid waste management process.
CEMESP on February 2, 2021 was awarded a six-month contract, “Consultancy Assignment to Provide Advocacy, Awareness and Journalist Training Services to Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program”. Under this contract, CEMESP is implementing six key activities: cleanup campaign and awareness in the Greater Monrovia areas (MCC & PCC); community forums in 10 communities in the municipalities in Greater Monrovia; journalism training; peer to peer sensitization campaign; design and launch a competition targeting schools and youth in communities in GM; and joint action earth day and world environment day.