BUSINESSES and members of the public have got to clean up their act and support local authorities in their attempt to keep on top of discarded waste plaguing communities in Bahrain, say community representatives.
The despair over ‘a lack of commitment’ was highlighted by area councillor Zaina Jassim and the frustration faced by officials of the Northern Governorate who said cleaning up was an ‘ongoing process’ in what appears to be an uphill battle.
The GDN reported yesterday that rubbish piled up for three weeks in a busy industrial area in Hamala and was only cleared within two hours after the GDN alerted the councillor and local authority.
“There are always campaigns on a daily basis, as well as during holidays, and the problem from my point of view is the lack of commitment of shop owners to matters of hygiene and disposal of waste,” said Ms Jassim.
Ms Jassim
The mounting plastic and paper waste by the side of road 1202, which people feared was a fire hazard, was cleared by the Northern Municipality. Local residents had reached out to the GDN after their repeated attempts to have the problem sorted had failed.
“Cleaning continues in the Hamala area and all other areas in the north by the municipality of the northern region,” the area councillor added. “The municipality is very keen to serve the citizens and to implement the terms and provisions of the cleanliness law.”
The Northern Municipality’s follow up, co-ordination and public relations committee head Ali Al Salam also told the GDN that in densely populated areas like Hamala, discarded paper and plastic quickly piled up.
“We have a very active team following up on the cleaning of the area,” said Mr Al Salam. “It is an ongoing campaign by the inspectors, done with an aim to educate people on the negative impact of dumping waste in the open.
“There are daily inspections too, though with limited manpower. But the main problem in the governorate is the large areas like Hamala, where the working population is huge.
“The waste dumping is a bigger concern in such areas, especially the industrial areas where people carelessly dump waste all over the place.”
He added that the municipality’s cleaning team was deployed within an hour of the office being alerted by the GDN and the councillor and the debris – which filled up a large truck – was cleared.
“We are happy that the newspaper highlighted it to us and we appreciate the public coming forward and reporting it too,” he said.
“We regret the inconvenience caused but we sincerely request that the people help us to keep the surrounding areas clean.
“Such waste – paper and plastic – piles up quickly and we do the periodic clearing of these types of garbage, while household waste is cleared on a daily basis.”
He added that limitations, including that of available manpower and vehicles, led to the ‘unusual delay’ over the Hamala incident.
The area has a large number of garages, painting workshops, electrical outlets, offices, cafeterias and bakeries.
Residents say they were not responsible for the mess and reiterated their dismay and claims that it was cleaned only once, every two to three weeks, with different types of rubbish continuing to pile up, causing a health hazard and fire risk.
The GDN reported last year that thousands of municipal violations have been registered by inspectors since the 2019 Cleanliness Law was introduced in October 2019, with Northern Municipal councillors demanding its implementation ‘in all seriousness’ with firm action taken against the litter louts.
Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf last year revealed that of the 13,517 littering, dumping and cleanliness violations recorded, the Capital Governorate had the lion’s share with 6,063, followed by 2,825 in Muharraq, 2,548 in Northern and 2,081 in Southern.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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