By Abdoulie John
The National Environment Agency (NEA) Executive Director Momodou Jama Suwareh has expressed his disappointment over his predecessor Pa Momodou Sarr for the stance he took on the tussle involving opposing environmental activists and a Chinese fish meal company based in Gunjur.
“My former boss has never made it possible to have a treatment plant for even a fishing company ,” Suwareh told reporters Wednesday at a presser held at the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, located along Kairaba Avenue.
In a Facebook posting published on April 30 on Fatunetwork wall, former NEA boss Pa Momodou Sarr challenged Information Minister Demba Ali Jawo on the Golden Lead issue. He decried the decision taken by NEA to send water samples to the Dakar-based Institut Pasteur, making it very clear that the regional lab is not a ‘water quality analytical laboratory but instead an epidemiology research institute dealing with incidence, distribution and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to public health.’
Sarr further stated that ‘effluent for water quality analysis from industries are sent to a water quality lab and not to an institute dealing with disease control of flu viruses etc.’
NEA boss used the platform of the presser to make disturbing about his former boss, citing many fishing companies that were operating under Pa Momodou Sarr’s tenure, and disclosed there was no treatment plant in any of these factories.
“These fishing companies were discharging the same nutrients and organic content into the sea,” he added.
Taking the gloves off, NEA Executive Director went on to say that Pa Momodou Sarr reported some NEA staffers to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) for making a complaint about a holiday lodge.
“Their only crime was to complain about the none-existence of a treatment plant there,” he voiced out.
Despite all these challenges, Suwareh said members of his unit succeeded in making sure that one of the five-star hotels in Cape Point got a treatment plant.
“Mr.Sarr is living in the same area. But when I raised the issue, he told me to be very careful,” he recalled.
Suwareh said they wrote several letters to the said hotel before the management agreed to comply with their injunction.
“The owner of the hotel even went to State House to say I’ve threatened to kill them because in one of the missives they received, I expressed my resolve to put the final nail in the coffin,” he said while provoking laughter in the audience.
He subsequently revealed that members of the coastal monitoring team were all taken to NIA for the second time, including himself. “Mr.Sarr was quick to disassociate himself from us. We were detained by the NIA for one week.”
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