It is a common saying that a healthy body is a healthy mind, so does the saying goes that a healthy people make a healthy nation.

To keep the environment clean and healthy is a task that is incumbent upon everyone. In fact, this is a step towards creating socio-economic advancement of a country.

In this country, the health of the people has become one of the top most priorities of government. Conscious of the importance attached to a clean environment, The Gambia government in 2007 initiated the Anti-littering regulation, through the National Environment Agency (NEA). This regulation is geared towards ensuring a clean and healthy environment. In a move to enforcing the regulation, the agency has announced a no-compromise stance with defaulters of the regulation.

Speaking to the people of Bakau Sanchaba, over the week, at the commencement of a ten-day community out reach inspection to compounds in the Greater Banjul Area, Muhammad Jabang of the  NEA warned residents to keep their environment clean, "otherwise the wrath of the law will be used against you," he said.

On arrival at the site, the NEA team discovered that majority of the people living in the area were misusing the gutters by pouring dirty water into them. Some residents go further to connecting pipes from their bathrooms to the gutters, which, according to the officials "is strictly against the regulation." The agency is cautioning residents to provide some sort of drainage system in their compounds to avoid water running into the gutters or even into the streets, uncontrolled. Failure of this, officials added, is bound to compel them to summon offenders to court. The anti-littering regulation, Jabang stressed, "is now in full force, and if anyone were found guilty of breaking it they would be dealt with."

Accordingly, if anybody is found guilty they will be liable to pay a fine not less than D1000. However, majority of the people who spoke to this reporter complained bitterly about unavailability of materials such as wheelbarrows to facilitate removal of refuse.

Isatou Bojang suggested for general cleansing of taps around the area. She also called on the NEA and the Kanifing Municipal Council to seal the top of the gutters in order to reduce the rate at which water is poured into them. According to her, they have been embarking on several cleansing exercises, but they found the people of the area less co-operative. "We will clean the environment, and the following day people will start deposing their refuses there," she said.