The Unforgettable London Lesson

“Our country is an extended home that we share with millions of others. So respect those you share this country with – please keep it clean,” says Bully Dibba, director of Finance and Administration, NEA.

Bouly Dibba was a student when he was embarrassed by a British school official here in The Gambia for indiscriminate littering. That was a lesson that would remain etched in his mind.
“I bought a new book in school and [indiscriminately] dumped its nylon cover as soon as I stepped out from the bookstore,” he explains.
As far as young Bouly Dibba was concerned, such a conduct is common, normal and inoffensive. After all, who cared?
But the Briton proved, he does care. 
“Mr Dibba,” he remembers the Briton called his name and instructed him to dispose of the rubbish in a bin.
 “That is how we keep London clean,” Dibba quotes the Briton’s own words said to him some several years ago.
“I was embarrassed because this is my own country,” he admits. “I would never forget that incident.”
Several years now, as the director of Finance and Administration at Gambia National Environment Agency (NEA), Mr Dibba finds himself mandatorily involve in the management of the environment, including its waste. 
And he seems to be taking revenge, not sparing his own daughter, who he said, had developed a tendency of leaving used dishes unclean since the maid would do the job.
“One day, I called her and told her that she has to do it otherwise without a maid, she would be a dirty woman and no one wants to marry a dirty woman,” he says.

Alarming increase
Improper waste disposal is deemed a major environmental hazard in The Gambia, even though the country is yet to be industrialised.
In 2004, The Gambia's president, Yahya Jammeh launched a monthly cleansing exercise, dubbed ‘Operation Clean the Nation’. Since then, the last Saturday of every month is observed as a national clean-up day and businesses and offices are closed from morning to an hour after noon.
In 2007, president Jammeh signed into law the anti-littering regulation. This has been enforced at various law courts with sentences.
Yet indiscriminate waste dumping remains a pain in the neck, in spite of these moves among others, taken over the years to curb the waste menace.
According to the ‘State of the Environment Report – The Gambia (2010)’, there has been an exponential increase in the waste generated in the past five decades. For instance, in the Greater Banjul Area, alone, over one-hundred and twenty-six thousand tons of waste was generated in 2003, compared to ten thousand tons in 1963.
The root causes are confirmed to be numerous. High population pressures in urban areas with neither corresponding increase in resource allocation nor proper urban planning to cater sound waste disposal sites.
Also contributing to the increase in solid waste, is the seemingly uncontrolled importation of low-quality products which are affordable, but less durable. This problem is further compounded by erratic power supply – a source of destruction to many electrical appliances.
 Traditional norms such as the abstention of men in domestic chores – cleaning, sweeping and garbage management; and low level of awareness as over 60 percent of waste collected in KMC is said to be mere sand, which could have been sorted to make the job easier for collectors.
Accordingly, local government authorities who are charged with the responsibility to manage waste, could not bring the menace under control, even though, Kanifing Municipal Council, for instance, reportedly spends over two third of its annual budget on waste management.
Infact, Kanifing municipality is bearing the brunt of solid waste pollution with a larger phenomenal increase of waste generated from over two thousand tons in 1963 to over sixty-three thousand in 2003 – a more rapid increase than that of the rate of urbanisation.
Benefitted 
In an effort to stem this tide, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday donated an assortment of cleansing materials to the municipality. 
On behalf of Mr Yankuba Kolley, the mayor, Mr Modou Lamin Jarjue, the councilor of Ebo Town, a known illegal waste dumping area, received 30 spades, 20 rakes, 20 cutlasses, 20 brooms, 25 waste bins and 30 wheelbarrows.
And when Sheik Alkinky Sanyang, a communication and education programme officer of NEA addressed the gathering during the presentation ceremony held at NEA’s premises, his tone was tough on KMC to do more, in terms of waste management.
“KMC is undoubtedly doing a good job, but it has to do more especially in flood-risk areas such as Faji Kunda and Ebo Town, now that the rainy season approaches,” he said.
Mr Bouly Dibba, though, believes that residents should join in cleaning up. KMC alone, he said, cannot keep towns clean when residents litter and dump randomly - like he was doing before the Briton showed him how London is kept clean. 
Perhaps, that is why, Mr Dibba emphasised the need for sensitisation and awareness creation at the family, school and community level in order to inculcate in the people the culture of proper waste management.
Otherwise, Bouly said, the waste being disposed has both an environmental and social impact.
He said: “waste is unsightly, it causes blockage on the drainage leading to flooding, it kills aquatic life, it impacts on water quality, it encourages illness, it breeds fire outbreak and it harms birds.”
For Bouly, since no one would litter on his or her house floor because it is horrible and disrespectful, everyone should find a trash to trash-in.
His take home message is for people to look around living and public spaces – neighborhoods, streets, schools, public spaces, playing fields, home, shops and dispose any waste found and encourage others to do the same.
This way, Mr Dibba, believes Gambians will take pride in their country’s cleanliness as the Briton does to London.
As he put it: “Our country is an extended home that we share with millions of others. So respect those you share this country with – please keep it clean.”