A few weeks ago, my husband and I went on one of our regular visits to Kenya, our home country. On this trip, we had a very special mission: to visit our daughter, Chania, who had just returned to Kenya to start her new job on a Conservancy near the famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve. She works as the Project Manager for Community Projects with the Maasai people on the 150,000 acre Maji Moto Group Ranch. There is a village on the Maji Moto ranch called Ngoswani; the main road from Narok to Tanzania runs through this typical ribbon development community comprising a line of varied shops and lodgings on either side of the road, plus a school and a Community Health Center close by. It is also the hub for a bi-weekly Maasai market. As is the case with just about every town in Africa (and Saudi Arabia!) the town is surround by litter, primarily plastic bags which get blown away several kilometers into the surrounding bush-land, hanging like surreal birds' nests on trees and shrubs. Plastic water bottles and a variety of tin cans add to the litter, along with lots of paper. One of the projects that was initiated by Chania's predecessor was to involve the school in a rubbish collection plan. Every Saturday afternoon, a teacher awaits the arrival of volunteer students to come and spend an hour collecting rubbish around Ngoswani. We accompanied Chania to the school to meet with them and watched as she organized them into groups of four or five, and then handed out large black bin bags and sent them off on their task. They rushed off enthusiastically and over the next hour, filled 16 bags with rubbish. All the bags were loaded into the back of Chania's pick-up truck, and then the enthusiastic refuse collectors all climbed into the truck with it. To Chania's question: “Why do we pick up rubbish?” came the loudly chorused response from 20 smiling children: “TO KEEP NGOSWANI CLEAN!!' We then drove through Ngoswani to deliver the rubbish to the pit where it would be burned, and all the way the children kept up their loud chant: “KEEP NGOSWANI CLEAN!!” Looking back to when we were first in Jeddah in 1984, we shared in the purchase of a small speedboat with some friends. We used to take it to the Obhur Creek, which in those days had very few buildings around it, and launch it from a public slipway. We would then drive across the water to a large spit of sand which provided a perfect beach on which we could relax in the sun with the children, have a picnic, and take it in turns to water-ski. It was virtually litter-free in those early days and we always made sure that we took our rubbish home with us. There is a conservationist saying in Africa: “Leave only footprints.” And then one day, we arrived to find that a group of people had a totally different outlook on life. They had arrived with their picnic and children to this beautifully clean patch of nearly inaccessible beach, had a good time, and then departed leaving copious quantities of litter behind: numerous white cardboard hotel-type lunch boxes; plastic bags, bottles, plates, cups and cutlery; paper napkins and tissues; empty crisp and sweet wrappers; empty drinks cans; and, worst of all, soiled disposable baby diapers. They had left the beach in such a disgusting mess that we no longer enjoyed using it. I wonder to this day why these people felt that it was ok to use a clean beach and then leave all their mess behind them, rather than clear it up and take it with them. We often see people in their cars in Jeddah tossing things out of their windows as they drive along, or throwing them out of the window as they wait at traffic lights: again, the plastic water bottles; plus empty cigarette packets, tissues, tissue boxes, old cigarette butts from their overflowing ashtrays, sweet wrappers, etc. Occasionally, we will ask them to get out of their cars and pick their rubbish up, and they always look surprised. One person once said: “Why should I? We pay the (expatriate) cleaners to pick it up!” One of my friends takes regular morning walks along the Corniche and the other Saturday morning when we met up for coffee, she was telling me the horror of the rubbish all the way along the promenade following the Friday evening crowds. I also have a photograph of a congealed mess of plastic bags in the sea, like plastic seaweed. Yes, there is an army of expatriate workers employed to clean all this up, but why is it that there appears to be no conscience about leaving litter around the environment, and no aspiration to keep that environment clean? The Council of Ministers has very recently advised the General Authority of Civil Aviation to impose a SR 200 fine on anyone who is caught violating the ‘No Smoking' ban within the Kingdom's airports. This regulation was introduced in August 2003 but blatantly disregarded and so, like Singapore, the authorities are having to get tough. Isn't it about time that a similar campaign and fine were introduced over littering in the Kingdom? Shouldn't the inhabitants of the Kingdom be instructed to either take their own litter home with them, or dispose of it in one of many bins provided by the Municipalities – or pay a fine? It is time for people to learn to take a pride in their towns, Cities and environment and to “KEEP SAUDI ARABIA CLEAN.”
