Rohey Manjang, the minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, has disclosed that the nationwide monthly cleansing exercise commonly known as ‘set-settal’ will bounce back starting from Saturday January 28, 2023.

She noted that this came in consultation with the National Environment Agency (NEA) and her ministry with approval from the Office of President.

Speaking on Monday at the NEA’s head office during a day-long media sensitisation forum organised by the NEA, Minister Manjang said the cleansing exercises will be held across the nation starting from 9:00 a.m. to 13:00 p.m.

The forum was focused around implementation of the Anti-littering Reregulation 2007, the ban of plastic bag order 2015, environmental impact assessment and the hazardous chemicals and pesticides.

It also discussed chemicals especially sniper on the food and agricultural products.

The forum was aimed to gather 30 journalists to help raise awareness and enhance their knowledge on environmental issues.

The forum was set to allow journalists to better inform the public on sustainable environment management about the serious state of the environment and the use of power of the news media to bring about change to improve the quality of the environment and call for sustainable utilisation of the natural resources.

The forum further informed the challenges of the NEA related to anti-littering, indiscriminate use of banned plastic bags and unsustainable utilisation and harvesting of natural resources.

The Environment minister noted that the previous monthly set-settal is to respond to the priorities and demands of the public in keeping the nation clean for a healthy livelihood.  

She thus urged the support of every key player such as Councils and the Municipalities.

She pointed out that the focus would be on the Greater Banjul Area and Brikama, giving consideration that these areas are where the attention of visitors is mostly concentrated.

The minister thanked the media for their relentless support in dissemination of information on environmental issues. She called on councils to take the lead, the Ministry of Health and the security for their support on effective implementation of the exercise.

For his part, Dr. Dawda Badgie, NEA’ executive director, noted that the forum would create an avenue to discuss environmental issues of concern affecting the population for possible sustainable solutions, noting that the Agency is serving these perspectives.