KABUL (SW): A new trend of self-service for cleaner and healthier environment is taking shape in the capital Kabul with a number of neighborhoods appointing street cleaners on communal basis.
“I pick garbage and clean the streets twice a week, and dump the trash at designated bins placed by the Kabul Municipality”, Naeem, a street cleaner in the Haji Nawroz neighborhood of the city told me. He has earned enough with this job to buy a motorcycle with a goods carrier.
Busy with his job, Naeem informed each house pays him AFN 120 per month for keeping their neighborhood clean. The young cleaner informed he looks after up to 200 houses in this neighborhood. This not only keeps the cleanliness ensured, but a decent income of more than AFN 20,000 for people like Naeem.
To explore if more neighborhoods were also adopting this form of communal practice of street cleaning, I visited a number of areas of the city. The answer from various areas was in negative. However, in the Shah Shaheed area, Irshad Ahmad, a resident of this neighborhood, gave a positive reply. He said the KM workers do not work properly, which has compelled the locals to take things in their own hands, and appoint a man to collect garbage and clean the streets.
He informed this initiative has played key role in improving the state of sanitation and hygiene. Irshad Ahmad mentioned that each home pays the garbage collector AFN 150 per month for the job.
A resident of the Qala-e-Fatehullah neighborhood, Faiqa, informed that a similar communal practice is prevalent there as well. She informed that the locals have appointed a man to help the KM in such affairs. She stressed the peoples’ support and collaboration with the KM are important for a cleaner city.
To discuss these initiatives, I went to meet the spokesman for the Kabul Municipality, Jalil Sultani. Hailing these initiatives, he thanked the residents of the city for owning the city, and striving for improving it. Sultani informed plans are in sight to increase the number of garbage collecting points.
He said that Kabul Municipality has already launched a project titled “come, let’s begin with ourselves” to encourage public participation in keeping the city clean and healthy.
Coming out of the KM office, I kept thinking with myself, what a wonderful legacy we would leave behind for the generations to come if each of us play the due role of cleaning the city we live in.
ENDS
