“This city has become very dirty.”
We were driving down a street in the aftermath of a severe dust storm last Wednesday, when my wife made that remark. Following the wind and dust storm, the city looked like a war zone. Strewn over the roads and sidewalks were litter, and tons of it. Particleboards, plywood, wood beams, empty cement sacks, paint cans, trash bags with their contents spilled out, and much more.
Indeed it was not a pretty sight. While the dirt from a dust storm can be accepted without reservation — after all it is an act of nature — what is not palatable is the senseless act of man who has augmented this abuse with his trashy nature.
From what I saw, I figured that construction litter made up the bulk of the trash strewn all over, but there was enough of everything else to alarm me.
Why is it that construction contractors are not forced to follow laws and retain their litter in appropriate containers whereby the wind cannot blow them all over the place? Where are our Municipality inspectors who are being paid to enforce such laws? Or are these laws simply penned on paper for everyone to ignore?
Wake up, Mr. Mayor! I realize you have only been in office for a few months but the honeymoon is over. Get down on your inept bureaucracy and get them out onto the neighborhoods handing out litter violations. With construction sites in full gear in practically every neighborhood, the coffers of the Municipality could become very handsome in a short time.
Instead of your inspectors wasting business owners’ time and money by squabbling over the size, wording or color of their storefront signs, let them do a better job at enforcing municipal laws that affect all of us. This litter that is often left unattended for days on end soon turns into filth, and a breeding ground for rats, as we have seen much of the Corniche suffer.
And rats bring diseases.
Empty or undeveloped lots are easy targets for building contractors. Rather than take the time and effort to dump their waste in specified areas, most contractors simply shovel this crap onto the nearest empty lot. This way it does not eat into their profit margins, but sure as hell leaves the rest of us fuming.
That does not absolve the rest of us from this mess. We as inhabitants of the city contribute just as equally in making this place dirty. We do not bag our trash and place it in appropriate containers. We fling litter out of vehicle windows, or empty soda cans onto sidewalks. Paper, plastics, you name it, and you can be sure we throw it. And just about anywhere we find convenient.
And while summer visitors to this city have to shoulder some of the blame from their excesses, we must collectively share in the blame. Our sense of civic pride must reach out beyond the two square meters around us and force us out of our lethargic manner of disposing of refuse.
In our homes, we must preach to our children the importance of keeping our neighborhoods and cities clean. And we must lead them by example. A father who carelessly dumps trash out of his car window while driving and without giving it a further thought is often observed by his offspring, who in turn one day will do the same.
While education begins at the home, our schools could contribute by forming teams of school children armed with litter bags and take them out on trash collection beats. Let these kids learn at an early age the consequence of such careless, lazy and thoughtless actions. We had teams of volunteers cleaning up our beaches this summer. Now let the school children clean the streets of our city this fall.
Business owners and managers must enforce hygiene beyond their front doors. How often do we see their sidewalks and pathways filthy and beyond reasonable trespass? Their employees must be instructed not to dispose of their trash or waste water two or three feet beyond their doors. I realize we have workers from all parts of the world, each with his standard of hygiene. However, as dwellers of this city, we must collectively establish one standard to fit all. And that does not mean acceptance of any litter on our streets and roads.
Cleanliness is a critical component of our religion, but I wonder why are we so lax when it comes to adhering to such matters of faith. Creating nuisance for our neighbors with our trash is another aspect that our faith warns us against. And yet again, we hardly give it much thought when we dump our rejects in front of someone else’s abode.
No government in the world can police this kind of selfish violation, if we are not to commit as one to do it ourselves.
