Traders in Abyei town over the weekend protested the local government’s ban on plastic bags, saying that they are useful for carrying small items bought in the markets.
According to officials, the ban was instituted on Saturday to protect livestock and the environment.
Kuk Chol, a local trader in Abyei who sells mixed goods in Abyei Town, said the ban is not realistic because no alternatives were provided by the government for carrying commodities.
“The authorities said the plastic bags negatively affected animals but they did not consider the economic point of view because it is not good to suddenly ban it once and for all, it should be a gradual process,” he said. “The traders should be given time to phase them out starting with the small ones and leaving the big ones for customers to carry commodities. No newspapers are coming in from Sudan and Juba so how can a customer carry purchased items home? If these plastic bags are banned, it will affect us business people and that is why the order must be studied first.”
Chol added: “Then they should give us three months to sell the ones we stocked or to take them elsewhere to avoid losses.”
A market vendor, Nyandit Yak, said if the ban is upheld, she will have nothing to pack her groundnut paste and sugar.
“It is not good to ban plastic bags and containers because we use them to pack groundnut paste. They should have banned the black big plastic bags,” she stressed, and asked: “If they ban all plastic bags, how will we pack our groundnut paste, sugar, and cooking oil?”
Meanwhile, Abyei Town Mayor Madiing Anyang Kuol insisted that the order was meant to save the lives of livestock, the environment, and agricultural land and denied that it was abrupt.
“The order was issued over the weekend and it informed the traders that the quantity of plastic bags should have been taken to other states or places. The usage of plastic bags negatively affects the lives of human beings, the environment, and animals,” he explained. “The traders do not collect and burn the used plastic bags so we said it must be banned because we informed traders to stop using plastic bags almost two years ago. They do not listen so we made it (ban) happen.”
“The fines are not much because when we get a trader selling plastic bags, we first confiscate them and the second time we fine them SSP 25,000,” Mayor Anyang added.
He urged the traders to respect and obey the government order for their benefit.
“I want everyone, every trader, to respect the order because the town looks bad and dirty with plastic bags flying all over, even in the forests,” he enlightened. “Plastic kills the productivity of land, pollutes the environment, and affects the health of human beings.”
“We are not targeting traders but instead care for the environment and every citizen’s life in Abyei,” Anyang reassured.