Today, I decided to visit a friend who recently moved to a new area. I left early to visit the friend because I did not want the sun to become too hot before I return home. Everything was fine until I reached the area.
There is a narrow street connecting it to the main road. It is the only road that everybody uses when entering or exiting the main road. When I entered the street, what I observed shocked me.
Almost the entire narrow road was covered with refuse.
Plastic bags, nylon, food waste, empty sachets, bottles - you name it, they had them. It looked as though they were a dumping site, not a street that people pass through daily. The smell in the air was quite unpleasant. I had to be very careful in order to avoid stepping on the mess they had scattered around.
The thing that surprised me most was not even the refuse itself.
It was the knowledge that the people who lived there were the same who disposed of the trash there. These are the same people who woke up every morning and passed through that same road. They breath the same air. They passed through that same street. Their kids passed there as well. Yet, they still dumped their refuse there without a second thought.
The worst part is that there is actually a proper waste disposal site just along that street. It is fenced and clearly marked. All they need to do is walk a little further and dispose of those wastes inside the proper disposal area. But no.
Rather than using the dump site for refuse disposal, they prefer to dump it by the wayside. Once one person throws something, somebody else adds to it. Before you know it, the place becomes a mini dump site. This is how things always start.
“This person has already dropped something here, so let me add mine.”
That is a mindset that I do not understand.
I don't even think this is the first time I have been seeing this within the city. It is everywhere. The moment people see refuse anywhere, it is automatically a dumping site. Even if it is in front of somebody's house. Even if it blocks a drainage. Even if it makes the whole environment dirty.
But in the event of flooding or other environmental calamities, the blame still falls on the government. Yes, there are governmental responsibilities. No denial in that. But are we playing our part too?
Sometimes, we create our problems and then complain about the consequences. Blocked drainages cause flooding, dirty environments cause sickness, and bad sanitation attracts pests. These are things that we can control at our level.
I felt very disappointed walking through this street in the morning , because change doesn't always begin at the top. Change begins in simple personal actions. Such as walking a few extra steps to dispose of your refuse in the correct place.
I kept asking myself, why are people like this? Why does it become so difficult to clean our own environment? Why does one care only about his or her own space but not about the shared space?
How can we hope to function within larger systems if we can’t even manage something as simple as where to dispose of refuse?
I hope we do improve, though. Because at the end of the day, we are the ones who have to live with the consequences