PM Browne calls for a national effort to keep the country clean

Prime Minister Gaston Browne is bemoaning what he described as an absence of
national pride in the manner in which the country has become dirty. People have
indiscriminately littered city streets and the countryside alike.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne show after participating in a clean-up
campaign in the Point on Saturday morning, PM Browne said it is clear that many
persons have lost the pride that once existed among residents in communities
across Antigua and Barbuda.
“It is unfortunate that we continue to violate our environment, as there is a
significant amount of garbage throughout the country, and the issue of
indiscriminate littering is of major concern. I observed during the clean-up that
people would be drinking beer or sodas and at the end of which they simply toss
the bottles or cans into the gutter which then leads to a problem of blocked drains,”
he explained.
According to the prime minister, he is at a loss to explain this behaviour, where
littering has become the norm rather than the exception. “Some people seem not to
understand that when they litter with plastic bags etc., they end up in the mangrove
and help to kill the trees in the mangrove areas. Yet these are some of the persons
who are first in line to complain whenever a development project is proposed,
where the mangroves are involved; even if the developers replant the mangroves,”
he stated.
Another observation noted by the prime minister is that some homeowners refuse
to clean the front of their properties, and allow bushes and shrubs to grow, causing
an eyesore to the overall aesthetics of the community.
“We had to literally go in front of people’s yards, into their private properties to
pick up litter, as they are not doing it,” he outlined.
PM Browne noted that keeping one’s property and in front of their home clean was
something that was seen as a matter of pride, he noted that it seemingly does not
exist anymore. “We have to do better than this!” he declared.