By: Mariama Njie
The National Environmental Agency (NEA) has validated a Waste Management Bill that seeks to help provide the legal basis for Implementing plans, policies, guidelines and regulations to control waste in the country.
The validation ceremony which was held at Baobab Resort in Bijilo will also help to guide waste collectors on health matters and how they should handle waste during collection and dumping.
Speaking at the event, Honorable Lamin Dibba, Minister of Environment and Climate Change described the Bill a key to waste management and “a very important process in the development of the legal framework.”
He noted that the Bill is intended to regulate waste management, obligations of legal entities and individual related to waste management, as waste management is an issue of national importance they need to address “not only for us but generations to come.”
“A development country like The Gambia cannot afford to seat in our waste, this is inviting public health catastrophes that our health system cannot take care of,” he stressed.
Honorable Dibba expressed confidence that the final work of the Bill will help government to identify and implement solutions that need to fix waste challenges. He therefore urged stakeholders to give due consideration and technical input that will serve as the legal baseline for waste management in the country.
In her his address, Dodou Trawally, executive director of NEA said “the waste Bill is one of the long-standing Bills we have in this country, it was first drafted way back 1999 and validated but here we are working on it again and we hope this will be the final one that will provide basis for incorporating the international treaties that we are party to and deals with waste management.”
He disclosed that NEA will accompany the Act with series of sensitizations and activities on radio, TV and community level to know the existence of the Act.
“We would come up with regulations that will clearly define if one wants to collect waste on a donkey cart, how the cart should be designed. Effects of waste management, if wastes are not properly managed can cause serious health and environmental problems. So, it is crucial we manage it for a better environment for people and animal,” he said.
The event brought together lawmakers, official of NEA and stakeholders including environmental experts who had described the Bill right in time and hoped it will help in many ways. The Bill was first reviewed in 2014.
