Over the past several weeks, there has been a spring cleaning fervour unmatched by anything anyone in this country has seen over the past two or three decades. It has surpassed the sprucing up delivered for Cricket World Cup, since areas that were not even considered for a once-over back then, have been turned inside out, all in the interest of preparing for our current visitors who will be here for the next week or so.
The grinders behind the Carifesta wheel have obviously taken to heart the saying that one never gets a second chance to make a first impression. And if at the end they have not succeeded in making a good one, it would not have been for want of effort.
Apart from major bridges along the route from the airport to the city being painted, one would have observed heavy-duty machinery digging and clearing drainage canals. Earlier this week, teams of workers along the same route could have been observed methodically picking up and bagging the stream of garbage dotting the roadsides. Sadly though, there appeared to be newly tossed litter in some of the areas that had already been cleared.
The clean-up activity, while not at the frenetic pace of the past few weeks, is what one envisages the community workers who were hired following the 2005 Great Flood would have been doing. That programme was to have been supervised by Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and Regional Development Councils where these existed, and would have seen the residents of various communities employed with keeping their areas clean in exchange for a modest payment of $25,000 per month.
At the time of its proposal, the initiative seemed to be a sound one. After all, one would assume that no one could have a greater interest in keeping their surroundings clean than the persons living in a particular area. However, time has proven this assumption to be not so true. Apart from the areas along main roads that might receive more than their fair share of litter because of what is tossed from passing vehicles, the glaring fact is that in most cases the residents of the various communities are the ones responsible for the garbage which is dumped at the roadsides and into drains and trenches.
The level of success of the community workers’ programme has not been pronounced on. And while it might have worked in some communities and perhaps still is, in general, particularly in city wards, the evidence points to it having petered out after the first few weeks or so. Residents who previously paid to have their parapets weeded and their drains cleaned have continued to pay for these services, as well as honouring their financial commitment to city rates and taxes.
What is sad about the current effort is hearing persons snigger and scoff at it. Obviously, they fail to realize that what has been occurring over the past few weeks is what is supposed to be. It could only be that having lived in squalor for so long they have grown used to it. And one should remember too that most city residents under 20 years old would have been born in the era of weed and rubbish-choked drains and trenches. For them a clean environment is perhaps the exception rather than the rule. Is it any wonder then that programmes aimed at educating and sensitizing young people particularly about good sanitation have not met with much success?
Pre-Cricket World Cup, the optimists among us had openly expressed the hope that the sprucing up of the city and its environs would not have been a one-off effort that was dumped by the wayside after the event. Unfortunately, they have had their hopes dashed. With very few exceptions, and these involved for the most part the efforts of private citizens, the status quo prior to the CWC quickly returned. Undaunted, the optimists are yet again hoping that much of what has been done to date will be maintained, at least in some fashion. Can one dare hope for such a miracle?