A major standoff is underway between Paramilitary officers and the community of Bakoteh, Manjai and surroundings at the Bakoteh dump site.
Two people, Rohey Njie and one Peter (second name not known yet) have been confirmed arrested after they reacted angrily to the decision of the authorities being executed by the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) to reopen the site.
A heavy Paramilitary force was deployed early Sunday to the ground to take charge of the dump site. The PIU under instructions have since reopened the dump site and trucks loaded with garbage are now bringing garbage and dumping it in as usual.
The whole incident started following the closure of the site by the communities of Bakoteh, Manjai and surrounding who are directly affected by the dump site. They have been complaining of the municipality’s waste management failure and lack of proper handling of the site which has great health risk on them.
Meanwhile, despite Saturday’s arrest, the communities are still gathered on the ground and all indications are that they may react to the force.
On Saturday, dozens of vendors at Serrekunda Market and other demonstrators unloaded several truck loads of garbage at the office of the Mayor of KMC in a protest over his administration’s waste management failure.
The vendors were denied by residents of Bakoteh and Manjai to dump garbage at the Bakoteh dump site saying KMC is doing nothing to take care of the dump site which has a great health risk. The communities took their own decisions and closed the dump site without government’s consent and denied the market vendors access.
The market vendors without any option decided to go back to the KMC grounds and offloaded garbage trucks in front of the Mayor’s office in a protest over his administration’s waste management failure.
