MONROVIA, Montserrado – Along Broad Street, the primary focal point of Central Monrovia, the Monrovia City Corporation has installed dozens of trash bins for residents to dispose of refuse. However, the city may need to conduct more awareness and enforcement to ensure the bins are being used.
Pekeleh Gbuapaye, the director of press and public affairs at the Monrovia City Corporation, told The Bush Chicken that the city installed 50 metal trash bins to keep the city clean and healthy.
He said the bins were donated by the city’s “partners” but declined to provide their names or the cost of the bins.
“These partners believe that the city government alone cannot single-handedly clean and maintain the city,” Gbuapaye said. “They feel their contribution in such form and manner will see a more clean, beautiful and healthy Monrovia City.”
He noted that the 50 trash bins in Central Monrovia are part of a pilot phase for a more extensive project by the city government to promote better sanitation in Monrovia.
He encouraged the public to use the trash bins for their intended purpose, adding that the Monrovia City Police would arrest anyone caught littering the streets, in keeping with the city’s ordinances.
Clause 3 of Ordinance No. 1 prohibits littering within the city’s limits. “Anyone found guilty of littering shall pay a fine of not less than $10 and not more than $50,” the ordinance reads.
Along Broad Street, some trash bins had trash thrown on the ground next to them instead of inside them. It was clear that the city had not started enforcing the ordinance. However, Gbuapaye, the city’s press director, insisted that the ordinance was being enforced.
Meanwhile, Agnes Collins, a local businesswoman and clothing retailer at the intersection of Broad and Randall Streets, commended the city’s government for introducing the trash bins.
“I support the fact that people in the streets should keep their trash until they reach a bin to dispose [of] it,” she said. “We leave Liberia and go to other countries like Ghana, Togo, and Guinea for goods – we see the people’s streets [looking] clean and beautiful. We, too, can do the same.”
She wants the city to install the bins in other parts of the city, not just along Broad Street. She also called for the city police to start fining anyone caught littering on the streets, noting that it could generate revenue for the city and achieve a worthwhile goal.
Another supporter of the initiative was Amadu Barry, a roadside forex dealer on Broad and Mechlin Streets. He backed calls for the city to educate the public on using the trash bins and then imposing penalties on those caught littering the streets.
“I am here always telling people to drop their trash in the bins – something others insult me for telling them to do the right thing,” Barry said. “But I will continue to say what is right to them. MCC got more to do in awareness for the success of this good undertaking.”
He said it was a common sight for pedestrians to drop trash on the street instead of in the bins. Barry believes this behavior will only stop if offenders are forced to pay fines.
Featured photo courtesy of George K. Momo
