Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Juba youth are calling on the city council to impose heavy fines on anyone found dumping garbage by the roadside.
Speaking through their leader, the youth from Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) said that the illegal littering is causing havoc in the city that is already struggling with the poor drainage system.
“We are expecting a clean environment yes, who will clean it for us yet we normally dumped everywhere,” Bol said after leading a group of youth on a cleaning exercise over the weekend.
Bol said the cleaning exercise will continue until they realized all the streets of Juba are clean. He, however, challenged Juba City Council to impose a heavy penalty on those found dumping garbage in undesignated areas.
“Keeping the environment of Juba Clean is not a government role but public responsibility since we are fighting diseases such as Cholera and diarrhoea from South Sudan,” he said.
He said the cleaning activities include the removal of the sand from the tarmac roads.
“To my surprise, there are a few women who are participating in this community service of road cleaning,” Arock Hannah, a residents of New Bongo, said.
“We (citizens) need to start admiring our city like the way we use to admire foreign countries, especially Uganda and Kenya,” she said.
Hannah encouraged women and young girls in the city to join the team in cleaning Juba.
On his part, Ochan Jackson said despite the ongoing cleaning campaign Juba still looks very dirty, “we can’t blame anyone for the dirty environment.”
He appealed to the government to engage the youth in cleaning activities in the country in order for them to contribute to the development of the cities.
“Youth are complaining about unemployment opportunities and being involved in criminal activities, City council should include youth in the cleaning activities,” Jackson said.
Last year, East Africa Go green company signed a ten years contract with the Juba City Council for collecting garbage from the streets of Juba but due to internal problems, the company temporarily stopped its service.
However, the mayor of Juba city Michael Lado Allah-Jabu promise to organize a daily cleaning campaign in the city, especially the main roads after Go green stopped it operation.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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