Environmental wrecklessness: save our streets for safe spaces!!!

Living in an unhealthy environment was a real embarassment for me. Our neighborhood was very dirty, dumping areas for refuse were overflowing, streets were littered with dirt, gabbage collection services were inexistent. I was so ashamed but what could I do? My town is a huge dumping ground. Pungent smells from every corner, rats celebrating their freedom on the streets and black water full of margots from sceptic tanks sweeping across our roads. What a shameful scene to behold.

Let me reccount 2 scenes of very common phenomena in my area I witnessed.

One fateful morning, as I went to dispose of garbage in a refuse dump, I saw a man emptying his garbage on the floor just beside the bin set aside for that purpose. A woman who was also coming to empty her dustbin saw this man and questioned his actions. She asked him to pick his refuse up and throw in the bin. He bluntly refused and queried her. He asked her if he was responsible for all that had been littered on the floor and also blamed her for intruding in something that didn't concern her and cautioned her to mind her business. He accused the her of trying to put up an exemplary citizen behaviour. As he was about to leave, the she grabbed his shirt and insisted he picks the dirt up. Being a man, physically he could over-power her and so he pushed her aside and left. Standing at the scene of that action, being a kid, I was powerless, I couldn't do anything. I was so surprised at the man's action and looked at the woman with admiration. This man's action is very common with adults and most especially with kids. I see many kids dumping their garbage on the streets on a daily basis because they are shorter than the public bin. Parents keep sending them to dispose of refuse when they know they are unable. If I had the courage that woman displayed, I would replicate the same action with unconscious citizens. But being a kid, I could only look with dissatisfaction .

There is this other scene I witnessed. A woman was standing by the roadside waiting for a cab when suddenly banana peels landed on her. It came out of a moving cab. A young woman seated at the front had finished eating and threw it out of the car. As fate will have it, the cab stopped few metres away from to drop a passenger. The woman ran towards the cab with the peels in her hand and threw it back on the woman inside the cab, cautioning her and at the same time reprimanding her for her actions. While advising her to keep dirt with her and dispose it once she gets to her destination. The woman in the cab angrily came out and started a fight. She asked the woman if she had thrown the peelings in her bedroom. Why would she pick it and throw it back at her. As the fight was going on, onlookers approached the scene to separate them.

These scenes caught my attention and motivated me to take action. Today I have created a Non profit foundation which has as one of its objectives to advocate for environmental protection amongst kids and adults. I believe that if we want to keep our environment safe, we must start with kids. I organise campaigns, educative talks and workshops with children. I organised one in which I asked children to draw posters of environmental protection and the best won a cash prize. Kids who have been educated at the tender age about proper waste disposal and actions to protect the environment, won't be involved in what I witnessed growing up as a kid. Back then, I was powerless but now, I can change the narrative. My aim is to educate 5000 children every year about the effects of their actions on the environment. I will like to be the voice of kids when it gets to environmental protection.

For adults, I organise clean up campaigns when people volunteer to clean the environment. We wake up early in the morning, meet at a given point, armed with brooms, rakes, gloves etc. Together we pick up bottles, cut grass and dig out gutters blocked by plastic bottles. These gutters are breeding grounds for mosquitoes and this cause malaria. Malaria is the most common disease in my community because of the dirty nature of our environment. Mosquitoes breed in the stagnant waters, bushes around houses transformed into refuse dumps also harbour mosquitoes. Volunteers are happy to clean up the environment as it affects not only them but their children too. While doing this actions, we sensitise the population and set an example. We do this atleast once a month. Every last Sunday of the month, I make it a duty to clean up my environment thereby contributing to the fight against climate change caused by environmental pollution. Though not everyone cooperates when it gets to doing community work, I work with those who show up. Most inhabitants wait on government to send garbage collectors to clean their streets when they can do it themselves for their own good.

I bleed when I see the state of roads transformed into pots of filth and breeding grounds for rats and other other diseases vectors.

The above described scenes can be avoided with a lot of education. Though the government has devised several strategies, we still notice uncivic acts from irresponsible Cameroonian. The government should amplify its actions and do a lot of sensitisation about refuse disposal. I think that even adults should be educated about the dangers of environmental pollution. We need an environment where we can breathe fresh air, children can play around without the risk of playing on refuse. A safe place free from malaria, choléra and other diseases caused by unhealthy environment.

Together we can save the beauty of our planet if we all unite our voices and actions.