Mauritanian soldiers, on Monday, began clearing rubbish from streets and public squares in Nouakchott, a city clogged with garbage, APA reports in the Mauritanian capital.
Early on Monday, soldiers in uniform and rakes in hand could be seen sweeping sidewalks of the city’s main and secondary roads.
This is a “new approach aimed at clearing away piles of garbage strewn around Nouakchott,” the Ministry of Interior and Decentralization says in a statement.
This strategy results in a “cleaning campaign of the nation’s capital city” supervised by the Minister of Interior, in the presence of the Army Chief, the statement adds.
The clean-up campaign is part of a short-term plan of action, which is executed in partnership with the Nouakchott Regional Council, the National Army and the National Union of Mauritanian Employers.
The garbage accumulated along the roads and highways in Nouakchott poses a serious problem of sanitation and hygiene for the people and casts a blemish on the image of the country’s main city.
Meanwhile, the municipalities of Nouakchott have been deflecting criticism from themselves by pointing out that they were completely sidelined over the issue since the decentralization of the city and the creation of the urban community of Nouakchott.
They say they lack the necessary means for the daily cleaning of the entire city.
The urban community has recently been replaced by a Regional Council, which has not yet started its work.
In addition to this, garbage dumps often located in the outskirts of the city, pose a real threat to people living in the area, who regularly complain about the squalor.
However, their complaints seem to fall on deaf ears.
According to the Minister of Interior, this “new policy,” is not a definitive solution to the problem, but the demonstration of a real desire to temporarily reduce the frustration of the inhabitants of the capital, pending the development of a plan to eradicate filth.
MOO/odl/cat/fss/as/APA