A litany on litter

By TONY NGARE

Kenya: People who throw litter out of car windows are imbeciles. Recently, someone tossed a banana peel out of a car window, and it landed on my friend’s windscreen. On a day with poor visibility, such an incident could easily cause an accident.

Recently, when we have had some rains in Nairobi, Thika Superhighway, a source of national pride and a Vision 2030 flagship project, was flooded horribly. We called the Chinese road builders all manner of names. Thank goodness most of the Oriental brothers do not understand much Kiswahili, otherwise, they would have been heartbroken.

But it turns out we could have been directing our vitriol in the wrong direction. I have been reliably informed by a roads engineer that there is nothing wrong or peculiar with the drainage system on Thika Superhighway.

The problem is the peculiar habit of throwing garbage, be it banana peels, chips wrappers, plastic bottles, cans or even used condoms, out of car windows as we cruise along the smooth tarmac. After weeks or months of scattering all manner of rubbing along the road, all it takes is one hour of heavy downpour, and the superhighway’s drainage is ‘drowned’.

The Chinese construction crew is innocent. Back home, in the People’s Republic of China, no one throws litter out of the car window, so they expected that we share the same virtues. Too bad they were too optimistic about our collective attitudes.

We cannot work as a country towards achieving Vision 2030 with a 3020 BC mentality! Throwing things out of a moving car is behaviour from the Stone Age.

For those of us who toss out trash as they zoom past, I have a couple of questions: Who do you suppose will come around to collect the garbage? Do you do the same in your house or do you have designated dustbins?

This matter shows there is a need for a re-engineering of our national values and attitudes if we are to progress as a country.

Perhaps it is time the county governments moved with the times and copied the exemplary approach adopted by Dubai (after all, don’t we wish to be like Dubai)  in  Dubai Municipality has enabled the public, and officials, to report littering and other cleanliness-related offences through the iDubai app. This has intensified monitoring of the practices of drivers and passengers.

Hundreds of municipal officials and thousands of residents with sound civic sense are now on the lookout for drivers or passengers throwing litter out of cars. With just a click on a smart app, they can book the wrongdoer for the offence that attracts a heavy fine.

Many other countries have adopted stringent measures to ensure irresponsible people, whose mindlessly insensitive minds cannot process the danger of damaging our environment and endangering other road users, are persuaded to carry a paper bag in the car and properly dispose of garbage.

The days to assume that status in the society, such as having a car, comes with some level of civility are long gone, but we must fight for the return of good manners on our roads.