Lack of civic pride leads to littering, says Singh
CIVIC pride can play a major role in maintaining a litter-free society, says Lautoka City Council’s acting manager health services Shalend Prem Singh.
He said civic pride needed to be taught to inculcate a commitment from members of the public who were still littering and dumping rubbish indiscriminately.
He explained that rubbish dumping and littering remained an issue of contention for city council workers who have to clean up garbage dumped in unauthorised places.
“There needs to be a sense of civic pride being shown from our citizens,” he said.
“They need to co-operate with the council. Food wastage is a major concern.
“Studies have shown that onethird of the food that we grow or buy from town is thrown away or wasted.
“We need to reduce our food waste or purchase food that is enough for the family and you know will not go to waste.”
‘Smoke Town’
He said another problem in Lautoka City was of households engaged in indiscriminate burning of rubbish.
“Open burning of waste is also a very big problem in Fiji.
“Some people have dubbed Lautoka City ‘Smoke Town’ because in the evening when we are returning from work and when we want to sit outside our verandas with a cup of tea, we see our neighbour setting fire to plastic, paper and rubbish and when that happens we go back inside the house.
“All of that smoke comes into the neighbour’s house and makes things unbearable for a couple of minutes.
“Some people do this every afternoon without thinking about their neighbours which is a problem that we can solve ourselves and that is ‘stop this practice of open burning’.
“With all of these practices, we are affecting our living spaces, our environment and ultimately contributing to pollution which in turn has a lasting effect through climate change.”
Resources a challenge
He said while civic pride needed to be improved, resources for municipal councils were another major challenge.
“According to United Nations Special Rapporteur David Boyd, Fiji was not providing adequate solid waste management services to remote areas and that is a fact.
“When we look at areas like Saweni, Lomolomo and Lovu, there were absolutely no waste management services until 2018.
“However, after 2018, we were able to start offering these services to these areas.
“The Lautoka City Council has now been given an additional budget to offer services to these areas at least once a week and I urge these communities to take advantage of these services instead of littering or burning their rubbish.”
Enforcement lacking
He said enforcement of policies that kept people accountable was another issue the council faced constantly.
“The environment laws and litter laws are there, but we can see that enforcement is lacking.
“You still see members of the public littering and dumping rubbish everywhere. So that is something that we need to address in years to come.
“Again, there is the lack of commitment and civic pride from our citizens to engage in practising proper waste management and practising the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) and by enforcing these policies we could be able to address this problem.”