By By: Staff Writer
Morris Farm, Paynesville– For Anita K. Sally, nights in Morris Farm are the hardest. The machines at the G5 Plus Brewery, sitting on the old Coca-Cola site, roar so loud she lies awake for hours.
“We don’t sleep at night because of the noise,” the mother of three said, her voice low. “Even the water we drink sometimes has a fuel smell.”
She is not alone.
Down the dirt road, 10th-grader Promise Zayzay stuffs rags under her bedroom door, trying to muffle the industrial hum so she can read her school notes. “To study, I have to close all the doors and windows, and still it is not easy,” she said. “We can’t sleep properly.”
For a decade, Emmanuel Peter’s family drank from the community hand pump. Not anymore. “Some people still drink from it, but for my household, we use our own well because I can treat it,” he said. He points to buckets stained brown and shakes his head. “When they release waste, the smell can last for days.”
Residents say the plant was once welcomed as a promise of jobs and growth. Now they call it a “neighborhood nightmare.” The jobs never came, they say. The clinic never came. The school never came.
“This company has not made any positive impact here,” said Mark L. Dogoleyea, a young resident. “No school, no clinic, no jobs for youth. If it cannot benefit the community, it should be relocated.”
Ruth Quaqua, 23, grew up in Morris Farm. She knows the rhythm of the place — when the air is clear and when it isn’t. “When they finish production and dispose of waste, there can be a strong smell in the community,” she said, nodding toward a thin drainage trench. Kids avoid it.
Geveyan George Livingston doesn’t let his children play outside during certain hours. “When they are ready to put their chemicals out, nobody can sit outside. Everyone has to go indoors,” he said.
Community Chairman Flomo N. Dekelay said there is no written agreement between the brewery and residents. No binding promises. No guarantees.
“Sometimes people can hardly sleep in their own houses because of the odor and pollution,” Dekelay said. He mentioned a clinic the company once discussed, but it came with a catch: the community must first find land. “That may not be easily achievable,” he admitted.
People here say they aren’t against development. They’re against being forgotten.
“We just want to live in peace,” one elderly woman said, looking toward the factory fence. “That’s all.”
when contacted by the Journalists on the alarming concerns, the company refused to respond despite multiple attempts. The move many human rights activists have described as deliberate from a company that is generating millions at the detriments of a struggling Liberians who once though of living in a peaceful home.
