By: Ebrima Mbaye
West Coast Region and the surrounding villages on Saturday joined the rest of the Gambians on the first general cleansing exercise locally called ‘Set-Setal’ since the end of the former regime.
Lamin Singhateh, The Public Relations Officer of Brikama Area Council, explained the significance of the exercise which is aimed at ensuring a clean and healthy environment across the country.
“The municipalities and area councils are trying hard to maintain and provide good sanitation in their respective areas so we should take this cleansing exercise as a national duty because cleanliness is next to godliness,” he told this medium during the exercise.
Sarjo Jallow, a cleaner at the Brikama Area Council, also said: “Every Gambian should embrace ‘set-seta’ after all it’s our environment. Thus the movement of the drivers on the side of the road makes our work difficult. I plead with the drivers if they could stop for a while so we can meet our target goal.”
On his part, Yankuba Bojang, a resident of Brikama’s new town explained how sad the developing countries pay little attention to street cleaning since we cannot live without a clean environment. He added that the people of the region took it upon themselves in line with the NEA to clean their environment.
“The turnout is not encouraging and people see it as a personal duty which is misguided. All able Gambians should come out in their large numbers next month to make the environment clean and after all, it promotes a healthy community which we are all yearning for.” He stressed.
Other speakers included Nasiru Badjie and Mariama Khan who also expounded on the significance of the exercise.