October 18, 2016 By Joseph S. Margai
The Freetown City Council (FCC) last Sunday cleaned the Guard Street market in response to complaint from residents that they were at risk of contracting malaria and cholera if nothing was done to keep the community clean.
Guard Street market is situated in the east end of Freetown and host thousands of traders and buyers from various parts of the city. But the community is most times littered with garbage, as flies and stench overtake what is usually a busy market area. It came as no surprise therefore that cholera and Ebola outbreaks in recent years claimed scores of victims in the area as a result of poor sanitary conditions.
Acting Chairman of Dove Cut Youth, Prince Eddie Koroma, said it was their responsibility to clean and tidy their community, hence they decided to team up with the FCC to undertake the exercise.
“To be honest, Dove Cut community is vulnerable because we have a lot of diseases that attack us regularly due to the poor sanitary condition. We have been attacked by cholera and the Ebola in recent years. Our community has been badly hit by all of the diseases that broke out in the city,” he said.
He disclosed that the FCC had been providing trucks for the transportation of waste to the ‘Bormeh’ dumpsite as well as providing tools, including shovels and pickaxes, for cleaning the mountain of waste.
He urged the FCC to be rendering such assistance to them at least once a month to enable them clean the Guard Street market, which is used by a large percentage of residents in Freetown.
Deputy Environmental and Social Officer at the FCC, Abdul Raman Parker, said Council had embarked on cleaning exercise for the past three months, beginning with six wards in the west end of Freetown, and that they hoped to extend the exercise to three other wards in the east of the capital.
“This exercise is sponsored by FCC and we are providing fuel and trucks to transport the waste, as well as paying the men that are doing the cleaning exercise. The role of the councilors is to employ youth in their respective wards to do the job,” he said.
He said there were bye-laws against throwing garbage on the street, which would be enforced after the cleaning exercise in all parts of the Freetown municipality, adding that anybody caught violating the sanitary rule would be tried at the Freetown Magistrates’ court No. 3.