The Bahamas is a naturally beautiful country and it is being destroyed by pollution and indiscriminate dumping on land, beaches and in the sea!
The situation on the Island of New Providence is out of control and many citizens have lost their sense of pride when it comes to keeping their surroundings ‘clean, green and pristine’. It disturbs me to see the proliferation of road side car repair garages and the tens of thousands of derelict vehicles that are strewn all over the Island, and that’s not an exaggeration! And the cries of those of us who care are falling upon deaf ears of the inept authorities who are charged with enforcing our environmental laws and prosecuting the lawbreakers. One only has to look at the rot and decay in most of our Government buildings as evidence of this failure.
On my street, for example, a filthy scrap metal business grew and grew over the years until it started to spill onto the street. My neighbor used a drone to take aerial pictures of the site and we also had ground level photographs which were sent to the Department of Environmental Health, whose Minister visited the site; we complained to our parliamentary representative, and finally we found the owner of the property who issued a cease and desist order to the person who is operating the dump and guess what, after years of complaining, the operation is still going on!!! What is one to do in these circumstances?
On Lumumba Lane, not too far from where I live, a roadside garage was finally shut down only after someone who was ‘connected’ complained. Regretfully however, the operators slowly returned to ‘business as usual’ and despite being given notice by the Department of Environmental Health more than two months ago to remove the derelict vehicles from the street within 14 days, as of this writing, the cars are still there. A total disregard for the law and no follow up by the authorities to ensure compliance.
Credit must be given to some individuals and civic organizations who have taken the initiative to clean up certain areas of the Island, including some of our beaches. But it’s very disheartening when the litter bugs return to pollute the environment with their garbage. Often times when an area is cleared or an old building is demolished the site is very soon used as a garbage dump.
Come on people! Where is your NATIONAL PRIDE?
Let’s CLEAN UP BAHAMAS!
© Copyright Rosemary C. Hanna 2015
While I love Nassau, one of the reasons that I enjoy living in Grand Bahama is the cleanliness of the island. We have our issues but we try to deal with them in a timely manner. As a member of the Keep Grand Bahama Clean Committee I can attest to this. In fact our annual island wide clean up is tommorrow. Many companies, individuals and neighboorhoods will be participating.
We have gone backwards with cleanliness here in the Bahamas, and appear not to concern ourselves on what we will leave behind for future generations. Once upon a time people use to blame the inner city, which by the way were kept in excellent condition in the past. Is Cleanliness still next to Godliness? I answer no
This is so sad Gwen.