By Saidou Baldeh
The acting director of the Gambia Physical Planning Department, Mamudu Manjang has disclosed his department’s intentions to re-plan Ebo-town and Jaba-Sanneh in Brikama.
Manjang made these revelations in an interview with journalists at a day-long staff capacity building training organized by the Physical Planning Department at the Paradise Hotel Saturday.
“We are beginning a community planning starting with Ebo-town and Jaba-Sanneh in Brikama. We are already working with Tawoto Real Estate to re-plan some of these targeted areas. We have identified the roads that are small to increase them even if it will take us to compensate the lands owners and I am glad to say that we have the cooperation of the committees,” he said.
Speaking on the importance of the capacity building workshop, Mr. Manjang said that the meeting is meant to brainstorm on their 2019 strategic plan. He then added that; “As a department we have realized that we should come together with our sister agencies to see how best we can improve our service.”
The Physical Planning Department, he continued to say apart from the directorate, it has three other departments including the planning unit, development control unit and the housing unit.
He then said that the capacity building workshop brought together former staffers of the physical planning, representative from all the area councils and all the Physical Planning Departments. “The workshop will help us to better sensitize the public on our mandate because we believe our mandate is not understood by the general public,” he said.
He further explained that the responsibility of the Physical Planning Department is to give advice to people when they are buying lands on whether the place is meant for residential purpose or not. He then added that the physical planning is not empowered to allocate lands.
“The problem we are facing as a department is that most of those people who sell lands are individuals and in most cases they don’t put us in the picture. This is why in some villages they find it difficult to have space for their cemetery, markets and other important amenities,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, the director of lands and surveys, Kebba Ceesay also said that his department is invited by the physical planning on yearly basis during their annual work plan review.
“This is meant to avail both institutions the opportunity to brainstorm on the way forward because we are two departments that complement one another. So if we are not speaking with one voice it will be very difficult for us to achieve our dreams individually.”
He then said that the workshop will help both departments to assess the work they were doing last year and how to better their service in the future.
