If cleanliness is next to godliness, then Barbados is in danger of being regarded as the devil’s playground.
We make this bold assertion because of the epidemic of littering that relentlessly pervades every nook and cranny of this country with no sign of abating, despite consistent pleas urging people to stop this nasty habit.
No wonder then that the statement by the now defunct Greening Barbados’ chairman Harold Hoyte on February 12, 2000, on Bajans’ attitude is as applicable today as it was then, when that group collected 60 tonnes, or an estimated 5 000 bags of garbage, in a morning initiative.
Hoyte said: “We are a despicable, disgusting, dirty set of people and those of us who had the honour of walking behind Barbadians this morning and picking up their litter know it.”
Unfortunately, the more we hear and see of Barbadians’ behaviour, in particular how they continue to indiscriminately dump their garbage, the more one recognises the truth of that statement.
The scourge of illegal dumping in Barbados persists uncontrollably in spite of the education initiatives by the Sanitation Service Authority, the Ministry of Tourism and others. This can be seen from the tonnes of garbage cleared from our beaches, gullies, roadways and drains whenever special drives are held.
Yet people are still throwing napkins, sno-cone cups, plastic bottles, food containers, wrappers, chicken bones a nd even condoms, from vehicles while travelling.
It’s as if Bajans never heard that such behaviour is wrong.
It’s as if we’ve never seen, through advertisements and television programmes, the damage that such practices cause, including clogged drains which contribute to flooding.
Yet again this bad behaviour has received a tongue-lashing, this time from acting Prime Minister Ronald Jones.
While addressing the official opening ceremony of the St Michael South Constituency Council’s health fair last Saturday, Mr Jones said: “Our streets are not clean and they are not clean because the wind blows paper, plastic bottles and pieces of trash across every space; it is dirty because we, as citizens, have not learnt to be clean . . . that is the problem. We move garbage from our homes and take it to someone else’s place.
“Additionally, we throw papers, sno-cone cups and fast food containers out of bus windows, or roll our car glasses down and flick something out onto the streets. In some instances, we have become so callous when we say somebody is being paid to do that [clean up].
He continued: “These are truths that we have to confront as citizens of Barbados. As we drive or bicycle across Barbados, our streets should be “spick and span” as though you can eat from the surface . . . .”
Will people begin to understand that littering and related behaviour are costly, non-productive offences, and that they have a responsibility to themselves and the national well-being to keep this country clean?
Based on what has gone on before, we know it will be a tremendous challenge to get people to recognize that what they do as individuals matter.
That’s why we commend Mr Jones for speaking out on this matter and in the manner in which he did. Clearly more needs to be said often, and penalties need to be enforced rigidly to ensure that people understand clearly that we cannot continue to litter and dump garbage indiscriminately.
Enough said!
