By Amadou Manjang
Former Latrikunda Sabiji Councillor, Ousman Fatty, has said he would sue the National Road Authority (NRA) and its contractors for allegedly disposing of waste in his neighbourhood, posing a serious threat to their health and well-being.
Mr Fatty said he would hold both the NRA and its contractors for not properly clearing the gutters besides his neighbourhood, and also for not collecting and safely disposing of rubbish from the gutters.
He said the rubbish removed from the roads is now getting back into the gutters as well as producing a pungent smell.
He said he has informed the National Environment Agency (NEA) about the disposal of the waste and he is only waiting on his lawyer’s advice before suing the NRA.
‘We are suffering from this so they have to clean it. They must clean it or I will take them to court,’ he said.
According to him, the rubbish removed from the gutters is disposed of in the neighbourhood, acknowledging that the gutters are totally clean of sand and rubbish.
‘We were here on Friday night and there was a lot of rubbish piled up on the roadside but instead of collecting them, they bulldozed that rubbish on this road,’ he alleged.
‘It is NRA’s responsibility to ensure that whoever they contract to clean the gutters should also collect the rubbish, but these people wait until midnight and bulldoze the rubbish from the main road to the feeder roads,’ he said
Fatty said the uncollected rubbish smells and there are food vendors at the corridor of the road.
Momodou Bello Bah, a shopkeeper in Latrikunda Sabiji, said the rubbish was bulldozed at midnight by the workers who were removing rubbish from the gutters.
‘I was at my shop until after 11 pm and when I closed and they saw that there was no one, they brought a bulldozer and raked the rubbish from the main road to the feeder road and spread it there,’ he alleged.
He said he would hold the NRA responsible for the uncollected rubbish because they are in charge of paying for the services through the taxpayers’ money and yet they failed to supervise the work.
Mr Bah added that it is wrong to use taxpayers’ money to pay workers who allegedly dump the rubbish within the neighbourhood instead of collecting it.
He observed that their health was at risk, and therefore he was calling on the NRA to supervise the work to ensure their safety.
Karamo Sanneh, a resident of Latrikunda Sabiji, complained that the rubbish was affecting their access to the neighbourhood. He said the workers should collect all the rubbish removed from the gutters and safely dispose of them.
‘We are not happy with the NRA and its works,’ he said.
