By Yiep Joseph
In efforts to support Juba City Council’s plans to maintain hygiene, a group of youth launched a cleaning campaign in Sherikat residential area.
A group of youth, who identified themselves as “Gumbo Sherikat Youth Association” launched a garbage disposal and general cleaning campaign over the weekend with hope of changing the face of the dirty city.
The event involves cleaning the streets, markets, and awareness activities in most languages in the country, with Arabic and English topping the list.
In his remarks during the launch of the cleaning campaign over the weekend, Athiei Diing, the chairperson of the Sherikat Youth Association, appealed to the residents in the area to stop random dumping of waste and littering.
“The campaign is to clean the area and ensure that everyone in the area takes responsibility to change the face of Sherikat. I urged the citizens to stop random dumping of waste,” Athiei said.
“Also, our business community in Sherikat, helps us and clean around your place, dumped waste in the chosen areas by the City Council; it needs our teamwork to keep the area clean,” he said.
Athiei expressed that the youth leaders would continue to spearhead cleaning and urged the authorities to monitor those who violate City Council policies that keep the city clean.
The youth leader said that the cleaning campaign would mainly create awareness among the residents to embark on keeping their compounds, streets, and homes clean.
He appealed to the residents to always use the designated point for dumping rather than dumping waste everywhere at night hours.
On his part, Jerimiah Akot, one of the participants in the cleanup, revealed that the need to keep the city clean is a responsibility for all those who reside in the city.
He appealed to the residents and the citizens at large not to scatter waste across the areas.
“Do not throw or dump waste everywhere; let us know where to keep rubbish or waste in one chosen place so that it can easily be collected by the City Council,” Akot said.
Akot urged the residents to take responsibility and ensure that surrounding areas are kept clean.
Early this year, Central Equatoria State government issued an order re-directing the leadership of the Juba City Council (JCC) to ensure the cleanliness of the city, free of garbage.
Despite the efforts invested by the JCC, most parts of Juba still witness stagnant heaps of garbage, with all streets in ugly shape due to littering.
Areas such as Hai-game, Kasaba of Kator, and Gudele one along the highway still suffer piles of uncollected garbage dumped by residents and street vendors.
According to Local Government Act, the city council is empowered with the right to maintain and keep Juba City green and clean as per their mission, including garbage collection, among others.
The Juba City Council in most cases blame residents in the City for continuous poor management of the waste and violation of the council policy for keeping Juba clean.