By Ndey Sowe
The Kanifing Environmental Transformation Project (KETP) under the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) has on Friday, 18 August, 2023 launched the project’s call centre Magazine and the Fleet Management System.
Over the past year, residents of the Municipality registered their complaints through social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. to address these complaints in a timely manner. The project has established a centralized call centre that fields calls from residents regarding accessing waste collection services and filing complaints of littering.
The call centre will replace social media for the reporting of fly-tipping, thus enabling a timelier response.
Additionally, the project has published a Magazine that highlighted the main activities implemented by the project during its first year. Also, the project has installed a fleet management platform that is central to KMC’s waste collection strategies that will improve the efficiency and sustainability of existing collection services.
In October, 2022, the KMC launched a 3 million euro grant for the Kanifing Environmental Transformation Program Project (KETP), which aimed at using a sustainable focus on new integrated waste management approaches to drive environmental, social and economic transformation in Kanifing.
KETP Project Director, Mr Alieu Nyang, explained that the project also aims to help transform waste management in the Municipality from pollution, health and environmental challenges to become a sustainable economic opportunity that strengthens urban governance, inclusive services delivery, and sustainable resource management.
“KETP intends to focus on environmental transformation, offering capacity building opportunities for officials and technical staff to further adopt environmentally sustainable practices and enhance Municipality’s service delivery in the areas of waste management and the provision of green public spaces,” Mr Nyang added.
Binta Janneh Jallow, Deputy Mayor KMC, said through increased fuel efficiency and training of collection crews, the use of the fleet management technology will have wider sustainable impacts.
She went on: “behavioural change is at the very core of this transition and will be driven by, amongst other activities, encouraging residents to use the call centre number and utilize new waste collection apparatuses.” From today, the residents of this Municipality can call 1244 to register their complaints regarding accessing waste collection services and filing complaints of littering.
She revealed that the launching will be followed by public sensitization on the Call Centre Hotline for residents to file complaints.
GM SmartMatic is the builder of the Call Centre. Lamin S. Ceesay, who represented the CEO, said in 2022, through the KETP, they were awarded the contract to design, develop and deploy the fleet management solution platform.
“We are very much delighted to render this important service to the council in a bid to contribute our quota as far as national development is concerned,” he assured.
The KETP was initiated to improve the management of waste by KMC and the community, support green entrepreneurs and greening Kanifing.
