The Kanifing Municipality Council (KMC) in collaboration with the Gambia National Transport Control Association (GNTCA) over the weekend embarked on a massive cleaning exercise, organised to mark the monthly 'Operation Clean the Nation'.

Speaking at the exercise, the chief executive officer of the KMC, Mustapha M. Njai, observed that a considerable amount of uncollected waste still remain in various wards of the Municipality after the last nationwide cleansing exercise. "Consequently, the Council engaged the GNTCA which in effect provided a total of 11 heavy duty trucks for the task.The Council on its part provided fuel for the trucks and mobilised its labour force for the task," he stated.

He added: "Two trucks were allocated to each of the five constituencies of the Municipality, and one dedicated to the evacuation of unauthorised dumps." CEO Njie said the exercise was quite useful, but hastened to express displeasure at the level of community participation on the monthly national cleaning operations, arguing that the local population should collaborate effectively with the Council in such and other community inclined activities.

He lauded the efforts of the Transport Association, describing it as an act truly reminiscent of the values of public-private partnership, which he said has become a development practice throughout the developing world and elsewhere in advanced economies. He further stated that the KMC under the leadership of Mayor Yankuba Colley places a high premium in keeping the Municipality clean as embedded in President Jammeh's overall vision of closing the gap between The Gambia and the rest of the developed world in terms of cleanliness and other development objectives.