As Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program Office concludes its European Union (EU)-funded solid waste program in Liberia, the Greater Monrovia region, including Monrovia, Paynesville and townships within the metropolitan area, is still seriously challenged with the problem of solid waste, with calls for citizens to take ownership of their communities, business centers, offices, learning environments and the metropolitan area in general by helping to promote a clean and green environment.
The calls for total involvement by all citizens in the fight against solid waste proliferation and its associated negative impact on the environment are being made by stakeholders, including the city corporations (MCC and PCC), Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program Office and the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP), as the four-year long program climaxes in Monrovia.
Cities Alliance’s Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst, Senjovu Andrew, says citizens need to augment efforts of the city corporations by ensuring that their environments are clean by adopting proper waste management practices. He said citizens have a serious role to play in the process, and that the effort by the city corporations will not yield desirable results without citizens’ involvement.
The call for citizens’ support to the solid waste management drive was also emphasized by the MCC and PCC. According to directors Abraham Jusu Garneo and Adolphus Chieh of the Sanitation Departments of both the MCC and PCC, citizens’ involvement will help the city corporations’ efforts in getting rid of solid waste in the various communities.
Malcolm Joseph, Executive Director of CEMESP, also called on citizens to take ownership of the sanitation effort in their communities. The CEMESP boss says citizens have a very critical role in achieving and maintaining a clean and safe environment. He said community leaderships should take the lead in enforcing the effort by instituting punitive measures against violators within the communities.
Joseph disclosed that Cities Alliance has been working directly with community-based enterprises (CBEs) on the primary solid waste collection services in Greater Monrovia, in partnership with Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), Paynesville City Corporation (PCC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ministry of Internal Affairs and other civil society organizations. He said the objective of the intervention has been to address the solid waste management problem and mitigate the huge challenge it poses to the metropolitan area.
“In addition to a wide range of interventions made towards mitigating the huge challenge of solid waste in the Greater Monrovia area, Cities Alliance, in collaboration with the city corporations (MCC and PCC) and the Center of Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP), recently concluded a massive cleanup campaign exercise affecting fifteen (15) communities in the Greater Monrovia area—eight communities in the PCC region and seven communities in the MCC region were identified and benefitted from the cleanup exercises,” the CEMESP boss noted.
According to him, the Cities Alliance’s European Union-funded Project, “Delivering Climate-Resilient Solid Waste Management Services in Greater Monrovia, Liberia through Community-Based Enterprises”, is a four-year project (2018-2021) aimed at leveraging long-term support, in accordance with Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) objectives, which states, “to build a new alliance on climate change between the European Union and the poor developing countries that are most affected and that have the least capacity to deal with climate change.”
On February 2, 2021 CEMESP was awarded a six-month contract, titled, “Consultancy Assignment to Provide Advocacy, Awareness and Journalist Training Services to Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program”. Under this contract, CEMESP trained twenty (20) local journalists and twenty (20) high school teachers, with the objective of providing skills and knowledge in promoting, reporting, and covering stories on climate change and its impact, including solid waste management, based on in-depth reporting.
“CEMESP also hosted an Arts and Poetry Competition for high school students from ten high schools operating within the Greater Monrovia area. The objective of the competition was to encourage students’ participation in raising awareness about their natural environment, and how they can portray messages of a healthy environment using arts and poetry. Prizes were given to four students who won in both categories from Isaac Davis High School and Maretha High School.
“Also, CEMESP conducted community forums and awareness and cleanup campaign activities on climate resilient and proper waste management practices in fifteen communities within the Greater Monrovia area,” Joseph disclosed.