The Salagi forest in West Coast Region is on the frontline of a heightening environmental assault as tons of waste materials find their way to the woodland, which is turning into a vast wasteland.
The Kanifing Municipality is currently grappling with one of the country’s biggest waste management problems but it would appear the battlegrounds for waste war have now shifted to the West Coast Region where authorities are dealing with pockets of problems, relating to illegal dumping.
Illegal dump sites have been sprouting in parts of the West Coast Region, including Brusubi, Wellingara, and now Salagi.
The lack of adequate waste collection and management services is driving the rate of indiscriminate dumping with communities using empty plots and free spaces to dump increasing amounts of domestic waste as the urban population surges in the biggest metropolis around the capital.
The Brikama Area Council has consistently warned of illegal dumping but the lack of waste disposal vehicles and sites has engendered another line of waste management challenge in the region.
“I think the time has now come for a serious conversation on this waste problem at Salagi forest,” a concerned resident of Jabang community, Modika M. Bah, told this reporter.
“Salagi is under the threat of another environmental disaster such as the predicament at the Bakoteh dumpsite,” added another concerned resident Sheikh Faal.
“Let them identify another place and relocate this illegal dump site. The Brikama Area Council should immediately clear this place and fence it,” added Bah.
Many interlocutors recommended an immediate intervention to prevent the problem from degenerating into a full-blown waste management crisis such as the one presented by the Bakoteh dumpsite.
