Swakopmund wants to be cleanest town in Namibia

ACCORDING to a recent opinion poll run by a local radio station, Tsumeb is the cleanest town in Namibia, followed by Swakopmund.

Swakopmunders don’t like coming second. They launched two clean-up campaigns on World Environment Day on Tuesday.At the launch, Swakopmund’s General Manager of Health, Clive Lawrence, said the town’s residents have to work harder to reclaim the first place.”I hope that you all are with me when I say that we will once again make Swakopmund the cleanest town in Namibia – if not the cleanest in the world,” he said.One of the two clean-up projects was a four-day campaign dubbed ‘Mondesa says no to rubbish’, while ‘Project Shine’ will take place over a six-month period and involve the 60 km stretch between Swakopmund and Arandis.Swakopmund Mayor Rosina //Hoabes took the lead in the Mondesa clean-up, followed by the Swakopmund Municipality’s entire refuse-removal team, street cleaners and volunteers.The ‘foot soldiers’ were armed with plastic spades, rakes and spikes, while artillery support was provided by dump trucks, bulldozers and cranes in the war against rubbish.Garbage of every description was removed from the streets and pavements of Mondesa, while residents were also encouraged to bring out the old car wrecks accumulating in their yards.The municipality disposed of these unsightly wrecks at no cost.Project Shine is a bigger undertaking – the 60-kilometre stretch of road between Swakopmund and Arandis will be cleaned over a period of six months.The project is a partnership between Namibia Breweries, Roessing Uranium and the Swakopmund Health Department, and the actual cleaning will be done by 12 teams representing non-profit organisations, mostly schools.The main aim of Project Shine is to clear the roadside of bottles and glass shards.The teams of volunteers will be paid N$1 000 a month and monthly cash prizes will be paid to the three teams with the cleanest sections.According to Patricia Hoeksema of Namibia Breweries, who is the project coordinator, it was a letter from a Namibian couple, Mike and Anne Scott, that prompted Namibia Breweries to come up with the project.The letter said broken bottles were “shining like diamonds in the desert”.They launched two clean-up campaigns on World Environment Day on Tuesday.At the launch, Swakopmund’s General Manager of Health, Clive Lawrence, said the town’s residents have to work harder to reclaim the first place.”I hope that you all are with me when I say that we will once again make Swakopmund the cleanest town in Namibia – if not the cleanest in the world,” he said.One of the two clean-up projects was a four-day campaign dubbed ‘Mondesa says no to rubbish’, while ‘Project Shine’ will take place over a six-month period and involve the 60 km stretch between Swakopmund and Arandis.Swakopmund Mayor Rosina //Hoabes took the lead in the Mondesa clean-up, followed by the Swakopmund Municipality’s entire refuse-removal team, street cleaners and volunteers.The ‘foot soldiers’ were armed with plastic spades, rakes and spikes, while artillery support was provided by dump trucks, bulldozers and cranes in the war against rubbish.Garbage of every description was removed from the streets and pavements of Mondesa, while residents were also encouraged to bring out the old car wrecks accumulating in their yards.The municipality disposed of these unsightly wrecks at no cost.Project Shine is a bigger undertaking – the 60-kilometre stretch of road between Swakopmund and Arandis will be cleaned over a period of six months.The project is a partnership between Namibia Breweries, Roessing Uranium and the Swakopmund Health Department, and the actual cleaning will be done by 12 teams representing non-profit organisations, mostly schools.The main aim of Project Shine is to clear the roadside of bottles and glass shards.The teams of volunteers will be paid N$1 000 a month and monthly cash prizes will be paid to the three teams with the cleanest sections.According to Patricia Hoeksema of Namibia Breweries, who is the project coordinator, it was a letter from a Namibian couple, Mike and Anne Scott, that prompted Namibia Breweries to come up with the project.The letter said broken bottles were “shining like diamonds in the desert”.