Mayor Koijee Seeks Support For Monrovia

-Addresses Conference In France

Mayor Koijee presents Monrovia case at the ongoing “Technical Deep Dive on Climate-Smart Cities “. After his “State of City Address” a few day ago to  residents of Monrovia, Mayor Koijee thirst to making Monrovia a smart and resilient city can’t be overemphasized as he seeks all national and international avenues to achieve such a feat.

His Lordship is currently in Paris, France making a presentation at the World Bank Technical Deep Dive on Climate-Smart Cities.

Making a dazzling presentation at the ongoing conference, Mayor Koijee highlighted that, “Monrovia is facing a series of challenges ranging from inadequate urban legal framework, inadequate livelihood opportunities for youth, unsafe neighborhoods with increasing gang activity and drug abuse, cost-intensive, unregulated solid waste management, congested and unsafe transport and greatest of all the threats of climate change.”

He said, as part of his plan to mitigate some of those challenges, he introduced a program called “Weah For Clean City”. The program which was introduced in 2018 seeks to develop and implement medium, short and Long term development plans of the City of Monrovia. The program which the theme is “Smart Actions for Smart City” consists of 14 pillar components interlaced with four thematic areas: Community Engagement, Youth Empowerment, Poverty Alleviation; and Smart and Sustainable solutions amongst others.

Mayor Koijee intimated that as part of his effort to tackling Job Creation, Solid Waste and Climate change crisis; the Monrovia City Government has enumerated 87,000 structures in the city and currently has approximately 12,000 disadvantaged youths and record daily 650 tons of waste (according to data at MCC Landfill). He said, “the city Government of Monrovia is deep concern about the challenges the Climate change is causing the city as coastal erosion and flooding to remain pervasive in the city; though much support is needed in tackling this global situation but as part of our effort in taking the lead, we have launched a tree planning program targeting 250,000 trees in the city centre, neighborhoods and beaches, and currently we have planted 10,000 trees, launched neighborhood drainage cleanup and beach upgrading program.

He lamented, that his vision is to migrate from Donor -GOL dependent system to a self-sustaining system through the New Waste Management System, Beach upgrading program and Long term waste recycling, reuse program.

According to the U.N, the unprecedented urbanization is transforming the world and the way we live; and around 55 percent of the world’s population live in urban areas and that share is expected increase to 75 percent by 2050.

Climate change will negatively impact infrastructure and reduce access to basic urban services (e.g. safe drinking water, sanitation, drainage, and health and education services), and thus the quality of life in cities.

The Technical Deep Dive (TDD) is being organized by the World Bank and the City of Paris on Climate-Smart Cities. The conference is intended to provide a platform for collaborative learning on challenges arising from climate change, knowledge exchange and structural learning on key topics related to climate resilience, mitigation and adaptation.