-Pro-Environment Advocates

A local pro-environment group, Pro-Environment Advocates, owner of Pro-Environment Television, Pro-TV, an online television network, has in a statement said the disgusting state of some of Monrovia’s beaches must trigger the re-introduction by the government of President Joseph Boakai, the beach and waterways program to restore sanity to the beaches.

 The group in a statement said it has toured many of the beaches, including the PHP and Mamba Point beaches and what it saw was profoundly disheartening.

The beaches, its statement further said, are littered with filth made up of human feces, bottles, plastic bags and other objects.

“Beaches are potential touristic sites, sources of revenue and job creation”, the Pro-Environment Advocates statement further said, adding that the re-introduction of the Beach and Waterway project would be a worthwhile venture.

The Beach and Waterway Project is a Liberian Government Initiative originally launched in 2011 to clean and maintain coastlines. Managed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the project provided jobs for residents and slum coastal communities.

Its objective was to tackle severe plastic pollution, waste dumping and ocean degradation in Monrovia initially with a budget of three million United States Dollars that eventually dropped to three hundred thousand United States dollars, a reduction that significantly hampered its implementation.

In its statement, Pro-Environment Advocates urged the government through the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to revisit the project to restore the dignity of the Country’s beaches and provide job opportunities of jobless residents.

The project was introduced by the administration of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, but suffered major setbacks during the administration of former President, George Weah, sparking off emotions amongst beach and waterway workers, who staged series of peaceful protests to demand pay.