Residents raise the alarm bell..
Over the hazards in Jui
By Ragan M. Conteh
There is a potential health risk for residents of Orugu Bridge near Jui in far east of the capital.
Some pile of waste food and with dozens of cartoons that contain chicken, fish and pig products among others including hospital waste are being littered on the streets.
Passers-by and community dwellers are experiencing a very bad atmosphere as the smell is coming from the Orugu Bridge, making it an alarming issue.
It is a call for concern to the government and ministry of health. Residents believe that the spoilage of food is caused by the inadequate supply of electricity in the country. As power supply sees blackouts the unfreezed food rots.
Some residents have alleged that they normally see dead humans lying under the bridge but a swift intervention of some community members who intervene to remove the remains under and around the Atlantic river have abated the problem.
“When we see a dead body we quickly alert the police and they normally intervene and help us to remove the remains,” a community dweller narrates to this medium.
According to him, the reason for the frequent dumping of the food waste is because Freetown City council is not doing their work.
He said the smell they are getting from the Orugu Bridge is causing serious health threats to them as community members.
He was calling on the government to intervene before things go out of hand.
He said some people have the gut to wash the refuse food and sell to market women at Jui, something he said is very bad.
Some youths are using the bridge underneath as shelter.
Speaking to one of the youth who has been sleeping under the bridge identified himself as Kartel.
He said their survival is tied under the bridge saying they have other means, and nowhere to stay.
“My parents abandoned me at the time I started smoking kush,” he explained.
According to the addict, one morning they just saw waste of chicken, ‘cow foot’ being dumped under the bridge.
He said some of the people living around including helped them to wash the already dumped food to eat it and sell the remaining to marketers at Jui.
Speaking of their difficulties, Kartel said but the frequent dumping of the smelling food waste is disturbing them a lot as the smell, flies and further expose them to health deterioration.
He called on the government to help rehabilitate them and asked city council to clean the said food waste at Jui.