THE answer to the public health MMC’s question about whether a city can be cleaned in one day is yes – it definitely can.
MMC Lance Grootboom proudly praised the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay after hundreds, both young and old, rolled up their sleeves and eagerly participated in his challenge: Can a city be cleaned in one day?
Residents across the metro were challenged to spend approximately four hours cleaning the environment in their immediate vicinity and some of them even went above and beyond.
Instead of just picking up waste in their respective neighbourhoods, some even cut grass in open spaces at their own expense and planted trees and plants to beautify their areas.
“I’m very happy about the outcome of this project and from my side I would say that it was a huge success.
“I am so proud of our residents who came out in numbers to support the project.
“From Uitenhage (Kariega) to Summerstrand, Blue Horizon Bay to Colchester, everyone did their part,” Grootboom said.
“You should have seen the residents of Helenvale. They were cutting grass and even children were outside cleaning up. In Windvogel, NPOs, such as Move One Million, went around and handed out hundreds and hundreds of bags. We are grateful to them and the companies that took up the challenge too,” he added.
Grootboom mentioned that everyone’s participation was proof that when a community came together and took ownership of their environment, they could make a difference.
“I am very, very proud of each and every resident and would like to thank everyone that participated, including businesses and organisations that made donations because without all of them, this would not have been such a success.
“It doesn’t matter where in the metro you went, there were people cleaning up everywhere, even children, and that makes me so happy because the whole aim of the project was to create awareness and educate people about keeping our environment clean,” Grootboom explained.
“There were just people helping everywhere. Our schools participated, too, and cleaned up in the water at the beach and the beachfront.”
According to Grootboom, the municipality is thinking about rolling out another project like this for more than a day, when residents will be challenged to help clean the metro for a week.
“There isn’t a plan in place for this yet, we are still going to have meetings about this, but we want to look at other issues too, including air and noise pollution, the planting of trees and street sweeping.
“Keeping our environment clean has always been very close to my heart and I’m passionate about it. The way the residents and businesses came together with this project really inspired me and I am immensely proud of everyone,” he said.
