City of kigali officials have raised concerns over the continued littering of streets and neighbourhoods with materials like empty bottles of water, airtime cards, paper as well as garbage.The officials, who included City of Kigali mayor Fidele Ndayisaba, as well as mayors of Nyarugenge, Gasabo and Kicukiro, said many residents have taken the cleanliness campaign for granted. They made the observation during a tour of different sectors of the city on Wednesday.“On roads to public facilities like schools, in the neighborhoods and even, in the drainage channels around the city, we can still find garbage,” Immaculee Mukashyaka, in charge of city greening and beautification said. In nine sectors that they visited, they noticed that, city residents, both the affluent and locals dispose of trash without due consideration of the city cleanliness policy.In Rwampala, Nyamirambo Sector and in some areas of the upscale Kimihurura Sector, residents say they are mostly affected by neighbours who dump garbage on roads, in neighbours’ compounds or in ravines, expecting rain to wash it away.Two-way cleaning problem Joselyne Muteteli, a resident of Juru village in Kamatamu cell, Kimuhurura, said, “I have complained about neighbours who throw garbage in my courtyard, instead of paying a cleaning company in vain.”Recently, CoK contracted one cleaning company per sector, and every household signed a garbage collection contract with the company operating in their area. The service will cost between Rwf2,000 to 5,000 monthly.According to Paulin Buregeya, the manager of Cooped, a cleaning company operating in Nyarugenge District, the cleaning problem is two-way.“First of all, people are not sensitised on the matter of waste disposal, and secondly, local authorities seem to be lax. They do not give due attention to the performance of cleaning companies,” he said.Buregeya said some companies take more than one week to collect the garbage from homes which leads to people disposing it off in wrong places.In July, the CoK started a six-month cleanliness campaign targeting city residents. The campaign aims at having 100 per cent of the families use cleaning companies which routinely collect garbage in the neighborhood and takes it to designated dumping sites.It also encourages owners of residential houses, garages, car washing bays and other facilities that connect to the main road to pave their grounds, and maintain hygiene standards.The national police, a partner in this campaign proposed awards for the best sector and individuals that excell in keeping the city clean.Awards include a vehicle meant for cleaning purposes and a motorcycle.Fidele Ndayisaba, the CoK mayor said, “We still commend the cleanliness in CoK, but let’s keep the momentum to keep our city a venue of enjoyable life.”
