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| toubab1020 |
Posted - 08 Jun 2019 : 12:30:53
just for your information,I wonder if the NEW GAMBIA of Adama Barrow has any plans for the country?
If you are interested in this topic please click on the source link below to see pictures and big content,a bit pointless for me to take up so much bandwith with a copy and pasted page.
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"June 8 is World Oceans Day, an international affair to celebrate the seas and sing their blues. The occasion has been observed since 2002 and is marked by events around the globe aimed at conservation and environmental consciousness-raising. This year, the sad theme is plastic pollution." 
https://qz.com/1637676/on-world-oceans-day-the-seas-are-awash-in-plastic-pollution/
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| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Momodou |
Posted - 09 Jun 2019 : 03:27:18
In honor of World Oceans Day
By Dr. Malanding Jaiteh
World Oceans Day is the brainchild of Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution officially recognizing 8 June to be "World Oceans Day", effective 2009, through Resolution 63/111 (paragraph 171)[Wikipedia].
As we commemorate this day, I join many in our coastal communities and ask for a reflection on the operation of fish food processing plants in Kartong, Gunjur and Sanyang. As Technical Adviser to the Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resource, over the past 13 months, I have come to learn about the delicate balancing act of encouraging and maintaining foreign investment that helps create jobs, boost local economies and the need to fulfill our mandate to oversee that "the country's environment and natural resource basis are sustainably managed and protected as contribution to social and economic well being of its people and reduces the impacts of climate change." Also, I have come to experience first hand how Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) struggle on daily basis, to adopt common or complementary approaches to dealing with crosscutting issues in the area of Environment and Natural Resources. More important I learned about the devastating legacy of the 22 year one-man rule where many of the problems we face today originate from. That said, the last 13 months also thought me that somethings need to be revisited, re-examined and if possible, evidence-base assessment to establish unfettered, incontrovertible, fair and balance set of facts surrounding the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of some legacy issues. One such issue is the decision to allow the establishment and operation of fish meal factories in Sanyang, Gunjur and Kartong.
These factories purchase fish from fishermen and process it into fish oil and food for aquarium and aquaculture fish for export. Those in favor including some MDAs say the factories help create local jobs both at sea and in the factories, contribute to central and local government revenue by paying taxes and assist in the various community projects.
For many living in the communities in which these factories are located, and others in the wider world, these factories do more harm than good. The environmental activists say the factories are responsible for many problems including depleting fish stock, pollution from waste water and used oil that are dumped in nearby wetlands. They also point to the many incidents of thousands of dead bonga fish the main species used by the factories, washed on beaches between Sanyang and Kartong; a problem blamed on poor supply chain management at the factories. Some say the factories deliberately turn away boat loads of fish at the end of hours wait in order to keep prices at the factory depressed. The factories uncontested ability to buy fish wholesale have the unintended consequences of fish shortage in local markets as boaters chose factories over local markets. The sight of millions of fish rotting on beaches when fish at local markets are increasingly unaffordable due to high prices driven by the artificially generated scarcity is slowly being described in some quarters as a sign of government being insensitive to local plights in favor of Chinese dominated foreign investors.
Lately the situation at Gunjur beach, the site of many confrontations between local environmental activists and Chinese-owned fish meal factory, Golden Lead, has prompted many questions in the environment community forums. Between the November 2018 and May 2019 the sandy beach in front of the Chinese fish meal factory, Golden Lead has receded over 25 meters. The high water mark along this section of the beach has moved over 25 meters upland washing away valuable sandy area once used by visitors. In the place of the lost sand, we now have piles of brown algae nearly a meter deep in some places. The erosion has now threaten many beach structures including the factory-owned vessel under construction. Whether this is the case of a bad weather year or not, this phenomenon began only months after the court-order installation of waste water pipe at the Chine-owned factory.
After a little over 12 months as Technical Adviser, visiting locations along the coast, listening to both sides I believe it is about time the government of the Gambia take a another look as to the costs and benefits of operating these factories. The photos, videos and voice messages from the affected communities clearly show something is not right. The brown algae accumulating around Golden Lead waste water pipe and the stretches of beaches disappearing in front of the factory need to be investigated by an independent and impartial body of experts.
There is no doubt the factories do bring with them some jobs and economic stimuli for local communities, but their environmental and socioeconomic impacts deserve to be carefully assessed. Given the irreversible nature of some of these negative impacts, and out of abundance of caution, the responsible authorities should demand that the factories suspend all operations until the investigation is completed. Such an investigation can bring a lot of good on both sides of the issue. It will help assure affected communities that their government did not abandon them for the Chinese-dominated foreign investors.
In honor of World Oceans Day 2019, I ask my colleagues in the various MDAs, namely, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, the National Environment Agency, the Ministry of Trade and the Office of the President to suspend the operational licenses of all the fish meal factories until the investigation is completed. This, I believe is whats needed in order to restore public confidence in their government. |
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