Tambacounda, January 3 (APS) – The challenge for the cleanest neighborhood, recently launched by the Ministry of Urban Planning and Territorial Communities of Senegal, is arousing great enthusiasm in the Liberté district of Tambacounda (east) where initiatives aimed at developing green spaces are emerging for a better living environment.
To participate in this challenge, those responsible for the Liberté district have decided to focus on the development of a garbage dump and a green space for the benefit of residents.
In this period of coolness, the first rays of the sun falling on Tambacounda, is the best news for the agents of SONAGED, the National Company for Integrated Solid Waste Management.
Shovels and rakes in hand, they are hard at work ridding the Liberté district of its garbage, rejuvenating its face and providing its public square with green and landscaped spaces.
Demba Diallo, member of the neighborhood development council (CDQ), one of the initiators of this operation, does not take his eyes off the bulldozer requisitioned to sweep and level the accident-prone bumps on the site which until then served as a garbage dump wild.
The district delegate Adama Sy and the environmental officer of the Liberté district development council are also present to supervise the work.
Used tires to decorate the site
“This site was an illegal garbage dump. To slow this down, we decided to develop it to make it a public square with green and landscaped spaces,” explains Demba Diallo to the APS team who have just arrived to open this initiative.
“It was a dilapidated and rugged site, people dumped all kinds of garbage here, including solid waste and plastic bags,” he said.
To put an end to this urban disorder which negatively impacts the living environment of residents, those responsible for the district, in this case Demba Diallo and his colleagues, intend to use used tires, flowers and fruit trees to decorate the square.
They also decided to place tires painted in different colors along the streets, a way, they say, of making better use of certain bulky objects.
“We are going to fit it out with tires, which is still interesting, because tires were objects that cluttered and polluted the living environment of the populations. Now, we are going to make these same tires useful for this same living environment,” noted Demba Diallo.
To facilitate garbage collection, those responsible for the Liberté district therefore requested support from SONAGED to set up a relay garbage depot.
‘ »We also decided, thanks to the support of SONAGED, to create a garbage dump relay fund, where residents of the Liberté district can dump garbage. And once the box is full, a crane truck will come and collect all the garbage to transport it to the city’s main dumps,” explains Mr. Diallo.
According to district delegate Adama Sy, this site will not be developed only for residents of the Liberté district. It is also expected to become a place of meetings and relaxation for all the populations of the commune of Tambacounda.
“We are going to win this challenge because for ten years we have been carrying out sanitation in the Liberté district. We want to create a space where the entire population of Tambacounda can feel comfortable,” promises Mr. Sy, enthusiastically.
Plea for connecting the site to the electricity network
“The idea of developing this site came when we were nominated to participate in the national challenge for the cleanest neighborhood, but this requires resources. We are therefore asking for support from the authority because these are initiatives that require a lot of resources,” argued the district delegate.
He also called for the site to be connected to the electricity network, emphasizing that certain community initiatives require both citizen engagement and logistical means.
“The site must be connected to the electricity network in order to make the place pleasant to frequent, this space must be well developed and do what is necessary to attract visitors, because if the populations do not occupy it, it will be occupied by third parties who may not be good examples,” he observed.
Al Ouseynou Aw, better known as Vieux Aw, is responsible for environmental issues within the development committee of the Liberté district.
Passionate about nature, dark complexion and imposing stature, Vieux Aw gives his all to preserving the living environment of the Liberté district.
He has been investing just as intensely since the announcement of the challenge to make the Liberté district one of the cleanest and most welcoming places.
The non-involvement of young people deplored
“Since the challenge was announced, we have mobilized to meet this challenge. It is important to point out that the residents of the Liberté district were already committed to the development of our area, well before this initiative. We are a CDQ [comité de quartier] reference, so this challenge, which came at the right time, found us on the right track,” he says.
However, he says he does not understand the non-involvement of young people in his neighborhood in this community initiative aimed at improving the living environment of the population.
“We deplore the lack of support from the population, especially young people. She doesn’t really believe in civic-mindedness and that’s a real obstacle for us. I appeal to the young people of the neighborhood. They must go out and invest in making our living environment welcoming,” he adds.
He also invites the local population “to adopt good behavior. We must not dump garbage everywhere, anywhere and anyhow, because if we do, this same garbage will end up in our homes,” underlines Vieux Aw.
“We are fortunate to have relay dumpsites, so the populations must dump their garbage there, in this way everyone will contribute to the success of our objective, that of creating a good living environment with a microclimate where the populations can “flourish,” concludes Al Ouseynou Aw.
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