Civic pride ‘lacking’
PICTURE this scenario. A child accompanied by an adult in a bus is enjoying his snack. After finishing it, he chucks the wrapper out of the bus, and the adult figure did not flinch. That somewhat indicates normalcy.
Many of us can relate to this scenario wherever we are in the country. Rubbish flying out of the buses, taxis, private vehicles, including boats and no one says a thing about it.
Is that normal? Should that act be normalised? How does the village raise this child?
In any town in the country you go, you’ll find this problem: rubbish thrown on the streets, drains, beaches, and public places where people go to relax after doing their business.
The litter menace
Pearce Home Trust chairman Mohammed Hassan Khan, who is also the former director of the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS), says his head aches after seeing the amount of rubbish thrown on the streets of Suva during his morning walk.
“No doubt, littering is a bigtime problem in Fiji,” he says.
“It’s like a national past time. People just love littering. They just throw anything anywhere, anytime.
“If you take a walk around the sea wall, it’s a most pathetic place to look at. In front of the State House, you’ll see the small seaside beach, it’s so filthy.
“Every morning, I take a walk there. There’s so much litter right along the whole walkway from GPH, right to the end of FRCS building. The whole place is filthy.
“You’ll see the waste of pizza cartons and the food wrappers. It is so pathetic.
“I get a headache when I see all that.”
No civic pride
He says it is sickening to note that our people still ignore the fact that all rubbish, no matter what they are, should be thrown in the rubbish bin.
“I am ashamed to say that overseas people are coming here to clean the rubbish voluntarily. But yet, our own people are not learning to put their rubbish in the bin.
“Simple thing, put the rubbish in the bin. If you are walking on the street, you’ve got some kind of rubbish, you keep it in your pocket or carry bag if you can’t see rubbish bins around.
“There are so many bins in Fiji, but I don’t know why people are shy of using them. Why do you have this mental block to not to use the bin.
“I think it is a sort of mental illness. Really, it should be classified as a mental illness in Fiji.
“There is something wrong with our psychic or our state of mind that people do that. It’s abuse of the nature, abuse of beauty, abuse of good clean streets.”
Mr Khan says he cannot see the city or environment pride in our people.
Rubbish in Suva
“The other problem sadly is that, Suva is perhaps the deadliest city in the world because our city council is at the moment in hibernation.
“It has not been working for last donkey’s years because we do not have elected representatives. So, there is no city pride in the people who work.
“Right in front of you, as you walk along Ratu Sukuna Rd, the drains are always blocked.
“There are sewer inspection chambers open and these are health hazards.
“This all ends up in the category of a health issue. It is a common sense health issue.
“They all say cleanness is part of godliness, yet they are littering our streets and rubbishing our places.
“I do not know what the state of their houses is. It’s sad.
“In front of FRCS building in Nasese, when the tide is out, if you take photos, that can enter you in the world photo competition for littering and you will win a price.
“It is that bad.
“I know a lot of organisations and voluntary groups helps in cleaning the rubbish there, but it’s all over again the next day.
“For the area in Nasese, rubbish is supposed to be collected on the first Monday of each month.
Nobody cares
“It’s almost half a year, you go or drive along Ratu Sukuna Rd over there, you’ll see all the garden waste still lying on the street.
“And, if we put one small can outside the house, they will come and give you a ticket for $60 fine, yet when there turn comes to clean, they just leave it up there. Who should pay the fine here?”
He says the laws are there but it is not helping to curb the problem.
“That’s true, what we need now is the reinstitution of the elected town councils, so that people can take in-charge of their own lives in the cities and towns that we have.
“Its happening everywhere, not only in Suva.
“There is Litter Act, but all these Act is good for actors; they just dance around it.
“People in Fiji unfortunately do not know the meaning of the word legislation. They are made in ivory towers; they are made by just few people who thought something about it.
“There is no public consultation, and then after the Act is made, there is no awareness, there is no education program on it.
“What is the Ministry of Health doing about it? They have an Environmental Health section in the Ministry of Health. Where are they? Are they sleeping? Shouldn’t we be giving them an energiser injection to wake them up?
Teach children the basics
Mr Khan says cleanliness is something which is taught to us from childhood, but the sad part is that we are not practising it as we grow.
“We can release this as an open question — why do we litter?
“Tidying up is something that we are taught from childhood. These are the things that we learn when we are a child.
“This should be a family thing.
“I think, also because the family system has completely broken down, that even the families do not teach their children and other members, not to litter.
“So really, it is a sad situation that requires us to talk about. It’s all about basic cleanliness and hygiene, basic health, et cetera.”
He says while keeping the environment clean is everyone’s responsibility, the authorities and workers responsible to look into that, should do their part.
“It’s also the job of the city health inspectors and the Ministry of Health and Environmental Health people to ensure that our city and Fiji is clean.
“That is why they are trained by the Government.
“That is why they are paid by the Government from our taxpayers money and ratepayers money. They are the ones who are supposed to do the job. It is not only the job of a voluntary organisation to do that.”
Littering in Pearce Home
Mr Khan says the problem has escalated so much that people have even started to throw rubbish in their retirement residence- Pearce Home at Butt St, Suva.
“People just walk on the street and throw whatever rubbish they may have in their hands. Whether it’s plastic bottles, wrappers, or whatever rubbish they have.
“When drunkards move in the Butt St at night, they just throw whatever they have in this yard, even their clothes and underwears.
“They think this is a dumping ground, and the residents here, our senior citizens, retired people, they end up cleaning this every morning.
“They do this as part of their physical exercise, but you know, there is a limit to that. They themselves are lost that why people are throwing all that in their yard.”
How can we stop this?
Mr Khan says education at the family level about cleanliness might help in curbing the problem.
“I really have no answers to this, but I do believe, it’s all about educating at the family level. “The families must take ownership of keeping their own homes clean, their families clean, their bodies clean and then the environment clean.
“Then, they must tell themselves that I should not litter. The rubbish that I create is my rubbish, so I must dispose it in my own way. And disposing means putting it in the rubbish bin.
“Unless every family starts educating every member of their family that the place of rubbish is in the bin, you can’t win this battle.
“It must go down to the family level and the families must take responsibility of cleanliness, right from home to streets and everywhere.”