In response to public concerns over the frequency of drainage backflows which often affect Monrovia City by polluting major street corners, the Ministry of Public Works has formed a strong collaboration with the Liberia Water & Sewer Cooperation to identify and demolish structures situated on the sewage and water lines in Monrovia City and its environs.

Today, the Minister of Public Works and the Managing Director of the Liberia Water & Sewer Cooperation walked through several streets including Lynch, Center, Benson, Gurley, Randall, Broad, and Merchlin streets, where they identified and marked for demolition, structures built on the sewage and water lines. Their joint discoveries of these encroachments by citizens left them dismayed and, perhaps, disappointed at how past governments ignored the protection of public utilities to the extent that they are inaccessible.

In a brief remark, Minister Roland Layfette Giddings assured the public that if they did not take these exercises serious judging from the conduct of past leaders, they should be aware that business as usual is a discussion of the past. "If our Division of Zoning & Land Use Planning marks your house this time around, rest assured that they are going to demolish it without compromise", Minister Giddings cautioned violators. He furthered that it is shameful that after a 177 year, Liberia still struggles with city planning strategies when others have made way more progress than we have made, being the oldest independent nation on the African continent.

Buttressing Minister Giddings' comments the Managing Director of the Liberia Water & Sewer Cooperation, Mohammed Ali, lauded the Public Works Minister for his demonstrated will to support his institution's initiative through the exercise of one of the Ministry's statutory mandates— to carry out demolition of illegal structures. Mr. Ali also recounted MPW's support to LWSC's drainage cleaning initiatives through a World Bank sponsored project, the Liberia Urban Resilience Project (LURP), a project run by the Ministry of Public Works-Republic of Liberia . He disclosed that the only means by which these backflows can be reversed is when the technicians can access these utility lines for regular maintenance, ensuring their best outputs. The Managing Director concluded by sounding a caveat to the public that building on the utility lines amounts to wasteful spending, as those structures will be removed by MPW to create access where necessary. He gave assurance of a resilient Monrovia once regular maintenance is done on these lines.

The exercise ended in Sayon Town, Bushrod Island, with the two institutions reaffirming their commitments to uphold the collaboration for as long as it benefits the country.