Banjul residents raise concern over poor drainage system

By Adama Makasuba

Dozens of Banjul residents have raised concerns over the poor drainage system in their areas, complaining that if pragmatic measures are not taken to address the problem it could lead to a serious devastation in the city in future.

The residents argued that the city has not been given much attention in terms of development despite giving a heap of praises to ‘Banjul city project’ that seeks to rehabilitate the city.

Many of the drainages could be seen opened with stagnant waters on streets of the city, which has raised another fear of concerns among residents.

They however called on the government to help intervene in addressing the poor drainage system of the city, fearing that the city could see the worse if measures are not reached to solve the problem now.

Musa Camara, in his 70s detailed that: “when it rains, the water doesn’t flow because the waters stay stagnant in the drainage.”

He believes that the cause of water not flowing to waterway is because “the drainages are filled with dirt.” He noted that there is different in Banjul of those days and Banjul of nowadays.

“We appeal to the government to consider Banjul and rehabilitate Banjul for us and clean the drainage holes so that when it rains the waters can flow out of the city,” he appealed.

Kaddy Njie also explained: “we are faced with enormous challenges on the drainage situation here, but I believe if they clean the drainages it will help the rain waters to erode easily to waterways without causing much havoc.”