The Catholic Relief Service Sierra Leone (CRS-SL) has Monday 6 May 2024 doled out four tricycles to the municipality management of Freetown City Council (FCC) as part of efforts aimed at supporting household waste collections at Kolleh Town and Cockle Bay, Freetown.
CRS-SL Country Representative, Jeanne Ella ANDRIANAMBININA, expressed her profound delight to formed part of the presentation of the waste cleaning tools saying, ‘I was honoured to join our esteemed partners today for the formal transfer of waste management resources to two flood-prone communities in Freetown.
She disclosed that these donated waste transfer tricycles and cleaning tools provided by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) private funds will directly benefiting residents by enhancing cleanliness and sanitation’.
Madam ANDRIANAMBININA shared via her official social media handles that the donation will support the FCC in fulfilling the Transform Freetown Agenda, Under the Transforming Lives programme, Strategic Change Platform 2/Homes and Communities (SCP2/H&C) of CRS.
CRS-SL Communications Assistant, Janet Kalma Thorley said that the waste cleaning tools were offered to promote sound and sustainable waste management practices and support healthier and more resilient communities.
She said that the donation formed part of CRS’ effort to complement Freetown City Council’s Transform Freetown Agenda, which among other things are aimed at improving solid waste Management practices in the city.
Thorley furthered that the tricycles were expected to capacitate the communities through the Community Disaster Management Committees – CDMCs to engage in regular cleaning of their communities which will enable them to prevent and mitigate the adverse effects of flooding.
The Mayor of Freetown City Council, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said ‘waste found on our streets, gutters and waterways is the result of illegal dumping by Freetown residents and businesses.’
She observed that for those residents living in hard-to-reach and informal settlements, the lack of access for waste service providers is often combined with a lack of willingness to pay for waste disposal, resulting in significant localized illegal dumping that contaminates their waterways and creates a health hazard, providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other disease vectors.
The Mayor of Freetown said tackling the sanitation challenges of Freetown requires addressing the challenge of waste collection in hard-to-reach and informal communities.
She spoke of the goodwill support with four tricycles to the Freetown City Council by the CRS. She added that CRS has provided two tricycles each (total of four tricycles), cleaning tools and rain gears to youth groups in the Kolleh Town and Cockle Bay informal communities.
The mayor furthered that the 40 female and male youth will provide household waste collection services to their communities, earn a living and acquire micro business skills in the process.
Ensuring community ownership, the Kolleh Town chiefs and other stakeholders committed themselves in making sure that residents cooperate with the waste collection groups. They subscribed to the proposal that a self-funded community clean-up is undertaken to improve local hygiene conditions. The youth groups vowed to use the tricycles for their intended purposes.
