By Bill W. Cooper
The only bulldozer assigned to the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) responsible for spreading of garbage in the Wein Town landfill is said to have collapsed.
With this nest development and many other issues relative to the filthiness of Paynesville City and its environs, the City has now been labeled one of “Africa’s dirtiest cities” by residents themselves who bear the brunt of huge carelessly lying garbage couple with the PCC’s inability to manage and properly dispose the city waste.
The landfill, located in Bernard Farm, Telecom Community, was constructed by the MCC through the Emergency Monrovia Urban Sanitation (EMUS) Project during former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s administration in 2012.
However, the bulldozer, procured by the World Bank in 2015 for the landfill’s waste leveling and pushing, has been out of order for over a month, a situation which has made the site inaccessible thus causing an overflow of waste in Paynesville for the past three weeks.
The PCC and the MCC, clothed with the responsibility to ensure the cleanliness of both cities use the landfill to dump garbage, but unlike the MCC, the PCC has no solid waste transfer station to store waste in an emergency.
With the bulldozer out of use, and low budgetary allocation which also prevents the PCC from constructing stations like the MCC, and renting heavy-duty equipment, it’s unlikely for the situation to be addressed anytime soon.
According to some residents, the situation is causing serious health hazard thus leading to illness coupled with the polluting of the entire environment and its surrounding.
Nevertheless, the World Bank funded Cheesemanburg Landfill and Urban Sanitation (CLUS) Project seems to favor the MCC over the PCC, with the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) hosted at the MCC.
The PIU, responsible for managing the landfill for both cities, has not received funding from the government for waste collection and landfill management since the beginning of this year, according to Project Implementation Unit Coordinator Atty. Edwin Johnson.
The situation however highlights the high costs of cleaning and managing waste collection, with the construction of a single waste transfer station costing around US$500,000.
As such, new equipment should be procured and purchased, but until then, the current state of the Wein Town Landfill poses a significant challenge to both cities’ garbage collection.
Meanwhile, the drainages of the newly constructed Japanese freeway Road has now turned into serious garbage site for residents of that area due to government inability to create/locate a dump site.
But in response to the situation, PCC Public Relation officer, Jeremiah Digen who expressed regret over the situation assured of PCC commitment and willingness to addressing the situation.
He said though there have been no official complaint from residents concerning the situation stated by them; the PCC under the leadership of its Mayor will do all in her power to resolve the situation in the soonest possible time.
Mr. Digen also highlighted the challenges confronting the corporation and said the issues of waste management is a serious issues thereby disclosing plans underway for the collection of garbage around Paynesville and its environs.