By Mariam Williams
Building resilience for sustainable city development, and complementing one of the components of the City Link Ostend-Banjul Project (Greening Banjul), the Future Proof Banjul last Saturday, embarked on a 5000-Mangrove planting exercise along the Radio Syd beachside. The event coupled with a beach cleansing exercise in commemoration of the International Coastal CleanUp Day.
Speaking on the occasion, the Deputy Mayor of Banjul City Council (BCC), Mr. Omar Touray, described the event as a unique one considering the fact that it coincides with the International CleanUp Day. “This day is unique and we are hoping to celebrate it next year with our partners,” he said.
The city’s deputy head echoed that the partnership between the Future Proof Banjul (FPB) and the West Africa Bird Study Association with the Gambian Ocean Heroes, is a win-win situation while calling on Banjulians to take ownership of the project.
Underlining that the Capital City Banjul is below Sea level, Deputy Mayor Touray challenged his fellow Banjulians to act now to support the component of Greening Banjul.
He warned: “If we don’t green Banjul, few years to come we will be in disaster. We should all come together and work towards the betterment of the project.”
Emphasising the importance of Mangrove Planting, Mr. Lamin Jobarteh, the Executive Director of West Africa Bird Study Association (WABSA), told the audience, planting of Mangrove is very important for the sustainment of the environment; and that mangroves plays key roles in terms of coastal erosion, coastal protection, wind breaks and to mitigating the effects of climate change.
He said mangroves serve as a breathing ground for fish, adding that acts as a filter to clean the water and as an important habitat for spices in general.
Executive Director Jobarteh told the gathering of planters that, changing of climate and landscape affects the mangrove ecosystem, “so is very important for us to restore mangroves in areas that are already dead”.
He concluded by saying that the planting of the mangroves is taking place to at least mitigate the effects of climate change in the country.
International Coastal Clean-up Day is celebrated on third Saturday of September, every year.
The day encourages people to rid beaches of the garbage plaguing beaches. Awareness is also spread about preserving and protecting the world’s oceans and waterways.
“Every year, thousands of tons of garbage wind up in the oceans, with 60% of that being composed of plastic materials. Plastics especially last a very long time in the ocean and are in such abundance that there are 46,000 individual pieces of plastic litter for every square mile of ocean.”
Also speaking on the significance of the International Clean-up Day, a member of the Gambia Ocean Heroes, Mr. Assan Maswell, said the day is celebrated to make the environment healthy.
“We are happy to commemorate the day with the Future Proof Banjul, this year,” he remarked.
