Litter and the Law

Any law is as good as the people that enforce it. A law that is meant not to be implemented is as bad as not having it at all. The concept of the anti-littering legislation is a product of necessity.

Waste management is among the greatest, if not the greatest problem faced by most nations today. Given the rate of increase in our population, it does not need much knowledge to forecast the potential threat we face from litter. Therefore this law demands a more serious attention than currently has.

So, coming up with an initiative of this magnitude is quite a worthwhile endeavor. And as we have all along been saying, the issue must not be dealt with that common ‘all-talk-no-action’ attitude. Every now and then, when speeches are made speakers leave no stone unturned in their effort to commend the president for his ‘wonderful initiative’, yet you begin to wonder what all of these people have done towards achieving the goal we yearn for.

The Gambia is not the first to have set such a law in the world. In other countries, the laws focus on lesser offenses than ours. Yet they implement them, and they pay dividend.

As we have reiterated time and again, the matter calls for collective effort, and that is why the Daily Observer is not relenting. We must indeed, at this juncture, commend Mr Momodou Sarr, director NEA, for following the foot steps of KMC and others by responding positively to the issue.

Since the signing of the law, we have been able to observe that an avalanche of workshops have been convened in the name of ‘anti-litter’. But do we not know that the right people to be targeted are the masses? Monies spent on workshops and ‘talk shops’ and all the accompanying fanfare should instead be ploughed into effort to reach the people that do the littering, get them sensitized and influence the much needed attitudinal change in them. Attitudinal change is a must-have requirement.  

We are not just desperate for prosecution because we want to see people been punished; in fact, it is not our wish that there is the need for any prosecution. But the fact is that littering is being done unabated, in defiance of a constituted law. The Daily Observer publishes loads of court cases everyday, and many of these are theft cases, the plaintiffs of which cases are not actually prosecutors, but because they have interest in their cases, they make sure that prosecutions are done.

We thank KMC and NEA for their willing response to the Daily Observer. We now want them to get together with our Action-Man IGP Ben Jammeh and ensure that those who litter are indeed prosecuted as the law demands. Thank Director Momodou Sarr at NEA and PRO Sanyang at KMC.