With little or no skill, for months Junior Kollie, 27, searched for job to make ends meet for his family, but in vain. Some days, he says, he would go around in
the port city of Buchanan located about two –hour drive from Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, to ask people to do their lawn, make bricks, or just any odd jobs available in order to scrape a living for his family of three.
But he soon got an idea – he told this writer that after months of fruitless job haunt, he later joined a friend to do carwash. And after months in his new found job, he decided to go solo and establish a carwash of his own.
With a faint smile, he slightly boasted that things are no longer grim for him and his family. On average, he makes 800 Liberian dollars, the equivalent of 10 United States dollars, a day. From this amount, he put aside some money to purchase gasoline for a red little water pump machine that sits on a discarded tire for the next day’s operations. Still, portion of the daily earning is saved, and the rest is divided among his crew of three persons.
Notwithstanding his good intention to create jobs for other unskilled and jobless young men of the area, and the economic benefits being derived, Junior Kollie’s carwash venture located at the entrance of the city along the paved road leading into the city, poses serious environmental consequences to a sprawling wetland of mangrove trees and the Benson River.
Things like lubricants and detergents used to clean vehicles are let into the large body of water that dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. Other pollutants including plastics resulting from his operations and other solid wastes produce by residents of the area are let to litter over the river.
Meanwhile, a Liberian environmentalist, E. Abrahim Tamba Tumbey, has told reporters attending an environmental journalism workshop in Buchanan that wetlands are very important ecosystem which provides social, economic and environmental services which are delicate to society and nature.
Pointing at the stretching mangrove swamp, Mr. Tumbey, who served as a facilitator at the seminar held recently, told journalists that wetlands serve as a natural reservoir to store runoff water, and at the same time regulate and slow down impacts of flooding.
Additionally, research shows that wetlands serve huge scientific purposes to nature. For instance, this ecosystem serves as habitat for waterfowls and other marine species. Studies have shown that wetlands play important role in the regulation of the hydrological cycle particularly underground water system.
Outlining the importance of wetlands to society and the need to conserve them from destruction, Mr. Tumbey told reporters that some fish from the sea use wetlands to lay their eggs under mangrove trees, and without such ecosystem, he noted, reproduction for such species would not take place.
Wetlands are bountiful in Liberia and a common feature of the landscape. There are hundreds of them scattered across the country especially along the coastline of 350 square miles.
Liberia is a party to the 1971 Ramsar Convention, an international agreement for the protection and conservation of wetlands in the World. The country officially signed onto the agreement in 2002; therefore, Liberia has an obligation to ensure the protection and conservation of these ecosystems with huge scientific importance to nature and human society. Since 1992, the World began the celebration of February 2 each year as International World Wetlands Day. The occasion is used to raise awareness and public information and education on the importance of wetlands and the need for their conservation. This year’s celebration was tailored on the theme: “Wetlands for our Future.” But no occasion was held in Liberia to mark the Day.
However, according to the Liberia Environmental Protection of Agency, the country has five internationally recognized wetlands with high conservation value that must be protected.
Notwithstanding their importance, wetlands in Liberia are targets of abuse and pollution. For example, in the absence of proper solid waste management system, wetlands are often used by community residents for dumping garbage and other harmful activities. In the capital, Monrovia, of 1.1 million people with a high competition for dwelling place among residents, especially newcomers, wetlands are often reclaimed for construction purposes without regard to their scientific and ecological significance to nature and society.
In the absence of available, reliable and affordable public energy, the mangroves from wetlands are cut down to produce charcoal used as alternative energy sources for bulk of Liberia’s 3.5 million people. Mangrove trees are also used as local construction materials mainly by the poorest of the poor. The ugly practice continues to persist despite repeated warning from the EPA that ‘wetlands are not waste lands’.
From all indications, and considering the scale of environmental degradation facing the port city of Buchanan, the threat posed by Junior Kollie’s carwash activity to the environment is just a tip of the iceberg.
Buchanan, Liberia’s second largest city is being battered by sea erosion. Rising tides and violent waves have swept away what used to be called Fanti Town, a large fishing community, residents recalled; the menace continues to threaten other parts of the city.
Mr. Benjamin Karmo, Focal Person on Climate Change at the EPA says Liberia’s coastal cities risk being washed away by sea erosion if immediate interventions are not taken to mitigate and remedy the situation. He recently told journalists in the port city of Buchanan that rising sea level and erosion which are among the impacts of climate change, pose serious threats to cities lying along the sea coast of 350 miles long.
“Sea erosion is threating Liberia’s coastal cities, and we need to move very fast to stop this,” he said during a guided tour of the site of a pilot project of US$3.5m of that seeks to prevent the sea erosion.
But considering the scale of the threats posed by waves of the mighty Atlantic Ocean, the project is no more than a drop of water into the ocean. And the city races against time.