The capital of Republic of South Sudan, Juba, deserves to be a clean city like any other capital in the world. A city's smartness is made and maintained by its municipal administration supported by its residents. It does not occur automatically.

It must be initiated, made and maintained. A few days ago there was a good move initiated and supervised by the Mayor of Juba City to clean and keep Juba clean. The step was good but if it was meant only to overhaul the accumulated garbage in the town and then relax again then we can say the effort was wasted. The cleaning and keeping the city of Juba clean must be a motto that must be kept all the time. Although there are a lot of boxes located in several road corners of the city most residents have not yet grasped the meaning of the call or appeal to keep our city clean and green.

They continue to throw about empty crystal bottles and cans all around the streets and drop heavy garbage all around our main markets of Konyo-Konyo, Rujal Mafi, Jebel, Custom, Munuki-Libya and Munuki Militia. Many of the residents complain of lack of large containers for depositing their unwanted stuff. They also say the workers of the company or administration for hauling away garbage rarely come around to take the stuff away and as a result there is always a terrible smell of the rotten stuff in the air.

The city council has yet to impose a rule of keeping the city clean with a penalty for its breakers but it has also put in place a programme of regularly sending its workers to carry away the waste from the locations where it is deposited. To be effective, the City Council has to obtain a good number of trucks for hauling or carrying away the stuff to its depositing points. Some senior officials who go round in the neighbourhoods to inform people about cleanliness do sometimes complain that they are not regular in their duties due to lack of funds. It is true such work needs funds. But the citizens in the residential areas and in the markets have to finance the hauling of the garbage.

They are not to be overtaxed but they have to contribute regularly small amounts to support this important work. The mayor's staff have to mobilize the people to implement the programme of keeping Juba City clean and green. If it is a motto only written on the walls along the streets then our eyes will always fall upon the filth in the streets of our capital which will never be clean or green. We have to work hard and a team work is required to keep our capital city clean. The Mayor should not wait and the programme of removing garbage and other unwanted stuff should be very regular and it is when we do that when our city will be clean. We should not make the clearing of the heavy stuff littering our markets and streets as an on and off type of work.