MAHENDRANGAR, July 16: Sanitation workers at Bhimdatta Municipality of Mahendranagar have launched a cleanup campaign using innovative idea to make public aware about the sanitation drive.

They carry broom along with whistles. They blow the whistle at every station after completing the cleaning job. Bhimdatta Municipality has started this campaign with an aim of attracting the locals for the city's cleanup drive.

“This new initiative is targeted to involve locals in cleaning their city,” said Gehendra Bahadur Dangi, newly appointed executive director at the municipality.

“Mahendranagr, which is known as the one of the most beautiful cities of Nepal for its proper town planning model, has been witnessing waste management problem and unnecessary littering around the city,” he said, adding that the new campaign will help to change the face of the city.

Dangi has been using different approaches to attract the locals for the cleaning drive. Earlier, he tried the use of beating drums to gather locals for the cleaning program but the technique did not yield effective results. Then the municipality started to whistle around the city while cleaning to attract more locals.

The new campaign has become successful to draw the attention of the locals. Social organizations, community police, journalists and leaders of political parties have also started taking part in the campaign.

Dangi is now hopeful that this campaign will have effective results as it has already started bringing positive changes in the community. “Whenever people hear the whistles early in the morning, they voluntarily start bringing dustpans and broom sticks to clean their community,” Madan Chand, chairman of Help Nepal, said. “Even hoteliers, who used to scatter the waste, now manage them by piling the litters in a fixed place.”

 “Dangi is not a local of this district but still he has managed to bring positive changes in our society,” Dan Singh Bhatt, sub-inspector at a Community Police Centre, said.

“Citizens must understand that not only the government but we are equally responsible for the mismanagement of waste,” he said, adding that the realization that we all must work together to keep our city clean will bring about positive changes.

The campaigners have also started collecting construction materials such as sand and pebbles heaped on the roadside for relocation.

“Construction materials around the roads create unnecessary trouble for both the pedestrians and vehicles,” a campaigner from Help Nepal said.
 

According to Dangi, the municipality has urged the landlords placing such construction materials on the roadside to clear their belongings within 15 days. “They will be fined from Rs 500-1000 if they ignore our directive.”

Dangi has planned to announce the city as 'waste free' in the near future if the cleaning campaign becomes successful. After seeing Dangi's enthusiasm, locals are wishing for his prolonged stay in the municipality.

“Most of the executive directors of the municipality do not stay long, complained the locals. 'Waste free' will remain just as a dream if Dangi gets transferred any time soon.”

 
• bhimdatta municipality
 
• waste free