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Mauritius: Dirty Little Island
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L'Express (Port Louis)
OPINION
6 May 2008
Posted to the web 6 May 2008
Nicholas Rainer
Port Louis
The necessity of transforming Mauritius into a sustainable island seems to be taking root in each and everyone's mind. The bulk of the population now realizes that the country has to turn to renewable energies if it is to ensure its energy security in the future. It is also dawning on many that the viability of "renewables" hinges on curtailing our energetic profligacy. So far, so good. Yet how can we aspire to such sweeping changes if we are unable to keep our island free of litter? How can we pretend to love our country if we treat its beaches, fields and streets like dustbins?
This is totally and utterly unacceptable. First of all, the country's decision-makers never tire of harping on about the need to emulate the economic success of advanced countries like Singapore. This laudable ambition should extend to our environmental policies. Indeed, if we consider ourselves capable of following in the footsteps of one of the world's best managed countries in terms of economic performance then it goes without saying that we must strive to copy their cleanliness too.
Secondly, Mauritius is a small country. Instead of treating our geographical exiguity as a weakness, we should in fact learn to use it to our advantage.
In its annual report for 2007, the National Human Rights Commission posited that the fight against poverty "in a small country should be easier to target the problem". Similarly, the fight against environmental degradation should be facilitated by the fact that a small country is easier to manage than a vast one.
Thirdly, far poorer countries have succeeded in cleaning up their acts, thus dispelling the myth that developing countries have their hands tied when it comes to protecting their environment. Gambia, for example, organizes a cleaning day on the last Saturday of every month. On this day, Gambians are not allowed to leave their immediate neighbourhood and have to clean up their yards and streets.
As a result, Gambia is one of the most salubrious countries in the world. Another upshot of the cleaning day is that it empowers people to look after their environment rather than lulling them into the facile mentality that it befalls government to do so.
Rwanda, a country that was ravaged by genocide just over a decade ago, is also one of the cleanest in Africa. Plastic bags are completely illegal there. If its leaders were able to not only drag the country out of a cesspool of ethnic hatred but also ensure a clean environment, it should be eminently possible for a peaceful country like Mauritius to do so.
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Making Mauritius a cleaner country thus hinges on making some potentially unpopular policy decisions. Whether our leaders have the courage to implement any remotely painful policies (other than those dictated by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) is a moot point. Tourism operators should also be more proactive by installing dustbins and the like. Even if the beaches in front of hotels are impeccably tended, it doesn't really reflect well on the country's reputation as a luxury destination if the public beach next door looks like a dump.
Stiffer penalties are needed to deter Mauritians from the litterbug mentality that still prevails. If car users now wear seatbelts, it is not so much due to safety concerns as it is to the high visibility of traffic cops on our roads. Yet instead of augmenting the Environment Police's resources, the opposite has been done. This is a damning indictment of the government's patent environmental lackadaisicalness. Every weekend the country's public beaches are desecrated because of a lack of dustbins, a lack of law enforcement and a lack of awareness. How long will we allow such an unsavoury situation to continue?
If cleanliness is next to godliness, then Mauritius is currently stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.
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