Following the Daily Observer’s story captioned Any anti-litter prosecution, the executive director of the National Environment Agency (NEA) has said that the NEA cannot prosecute offenders under the newly established Anti-littering Laws.

Momodou B Sarr made this statement on Wednesday in an interview with the Daily Observer at his office in Banjul. However, the NEA boss said the agency can only apprehend offenders and hand them over to the police for prosecution.

“The regulations contain a lot of fines that can be imposed on offenders but the law says that the offenders have to be taken before a law court, where the fines can be decided”, he added.

The fines, he said, range between D1,000 to D5,000, and it is the law court that determines the fine.

Asked whether any successful prosecution took place since the enactment of the anti-littering law last year, Mr Sarr replied: “In the past, we have seen people dumping somewhere and we stopped them. We informed the police and the police impounded their vehicles. We also forced them to clean the areas they littered. This has happened many times but we cannot prosecute them by ourselves. Instead, it is the police who prosecute them in court”, he revealed.

He then recalled 31st January, 2008, when the NEA organised a sensitisation workshop for about 80 police prosecutors on the anti-littering law, describing the police as good partners, who were instrumental in combating industrial pollution and vehicles parked along the highways and in some streets.

Mr Sarr highlighted the provision of rubbish bins and massive sensitisation on the regulations and enforcement of the law as the three major tools to reduce the littering.

The NEA executive director described the anti-littering regulation as a good initiative by the president and called on the public to keep the environment clean.