My city, my responsibility

Encouraging children to protect the surroundings in which they live will automatically help them respect the public properties and also the environment. Realising this, the Community Department at Muscat Municipality has launched a project to promote awareness among students on the importance of maintaining hygiene and protect public properties. The project under the slogan Madinati Masouliyyati (my city, my responsibility) is being implemented in coordination with the Directorate-general of Education in the Governorate of Muscat. “It aims at promoting a culture of environmental awareness among students from a very early age,” said Zakiyya al Mughairi a social researcher in the Department of Community Partnership. The project includes a series of awareness programmes, and some events that stimulate the partnership with the school community. It was first launched at the morning assembly of Al Ithraa Basic School in Seeb. “Students get a chance to participate in an open dialogue and talk about the need for protecting public properties,” she said.

It shows the child that a community problem is an individual problem. Cleaning the school is not just the job of the school — it is also the concern of students. was becoming rampant, and only through an awareness programme, the menace can be nipped,” she said.

Programmes during the implementation period of the project, which will continue till the end of December, include distribution of leaflets to students in addition to implementing the awareness session for parents in collaboration with the Directorate-general of Health Affairs.

Muscat Municipality in a recent statement expressed its concern over rising number of damages to roads and street lights, which costs thousands of rials in repair.

Such damages can pose serious risk to people. Anti-social elements often tamper with the secure cover of the panel and mess up with the wires which cause inconvenience to others especially at nights.

The civic body has been implementing several steps to address this phenomenon including awareness programmes on maintaining public facilities and consequences of damaging them.