Poor road rehabilitation by Golden Lead Company threatens life in the coastal settlement of Gunjur in The Gambia, as scores of residents express concern about the latest dust pollution coming from the recent “road rehabilitation” by the Golden Lead Fish meal processing company as part of their cooperate social responsibility. In what could be described as “jumping from frying pan into the fire” is the situation of Gunjurians vs Golden Lead Company that has taken a new twist. After several months of struggle, media campaigns and unsettled legal battle between Gunjurians and the fishmeal factory, the situation is getting from bad to worse. Immediately after the rainy season ended in the Gambia, a serious pandemonium hits villagers as the dusty beach road squandered dust all over the community especially those living around the vicinity. Many of the villagers blames it on the fishmeal factory who undertook some road rehabilitation to the beach during the last rainy season. The dwellers accused the factory for pouring dusty and broken pebbles of stones which were easily broken down into pieces by vehicles and other transports. Adding his voice to the saga, Mr Essa Sumareh a youth activist in Gunjur who also doubles as the Coalition government's youth mobiliser said, "government should not blame Gunjurians if they attack the Golden lead factory!!!" Mr. Sumareh made these remarks on his Facebook wall while expressing his frustration and dismay on the manner that the government handle this issue. "The matter is already in court and they keep adjouring the hearing,we have taken all the necessary steps already.That factory is polluting the whole area daily and people are very angry at the moment" Sumareh wrote on his Facebook wall while responding to a questioner who asked whether they've taken the right steps in getting a solution to the issue. "I never encourage violence but this issue is serious. In fact, I want that factory to shut down now!" He concluded.
Essa Sumareh - Wants factory shut down to preserve health of the community
"It is 07:00 am this morning. This is the reality every morning and every afternoon. Houses are covered in dust, imagine our lungs. The poor quality materials put on the road is causing this powder to engulf our lives. This is unacceptable. Today I bought dust masks just as the taxi drivers have, just so we can pass on the road. This is completely unfair and needs to be addressed immediately by those that caused the problem" wrote Mrs Jenny Ringstead who runs a lodge on the way to the beach while contributing on a facebook discussion concerning the matter. For his part Lamin Jassey, a nursery school administrator has these to say "Not only kajabang children, kulukochi school is facing the same thing. Something should be done immediately or else we would do it for ourselves." Musa Saho a Gunjurian on studies in Malaysia says "if they (government) are not doing their job on that, Gunjurians will step up to take care of their affairs. We will not sit to watch our environment exploited to the core." Mamakaddy Bajo Komma duped "Mother of the younger generation" also has this to say: "Our beautiful Gunjur beach road turn to look like this, Chinese Golden Lead Factory don't respect the life of these people the poor boy (referring to a boy on the picture) cycling through this dust and people living there are constantly suffering from this. The government and authorities are just focusing on their pockets not the people who put them there. They are pushing Gunjurians to the wall. I call on Gunjurians to come together and put stop to this madness."
Other contributors include Bunama Jatta, Omar Jaine Saidy, Sukai Jobe among others, all condemning the status quo in Gunjur at the moment.