By Laila Bassam
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Picking up brooms and donning green
overalls, dozens of women have taken to cleaning the streets of
Beirut after Israeli air strikes scared off refuse collectors
and left the capital strewn with festering rubbish.
Around 2,000 refuse collectors and street-sweepers, most of
Syrian or Asian origin, have fled Lebanon since the start of
the war 18 days ago, paralyzing Sukleen, the firm charged with
keeping Beirut and Mount Lebanon clean.
With no one to empty skips and bins, bags of rubbish began
piling up on street corners and litter was left to fester,
prompting some women to volunteer to clean up their city.
“If we don’t do anything, those who do not get killed by
Israeli missiles will get killed … by germs and diseases,”
said Najwa Baroudi, a designer and artist who was helping clean
a street in Beirut.
Dressed in the bright green overalls of Sukleen refuse
collectors, Baroudi was gathering up rubbish from the road and
placing it in the skips which another woman was helping lift
and dump into the churning gut of the garbage truck.
Mona al-Hajj, a housewife who was helping sweep bustling
Hamra Street, said Sukleen was trying to find new employees but
that something had to be done before the flies and cockroaches
infested Lebanese homes.
“Piles of rubbish are mounting up outside our homes so what
are we waiting for?” she asked. “Beirut municipality, students,
charities, housewives, doctors, engineers and employees are all
taking part.”
NO SHAME
Lebanese are not known for their ecological awareness and
tend to look down on refuse collection as a job for poor
migrant workers, not themselves. Sukleen is finding it hard to
recruit new rubbish collectors to replace those who fled.
Sukleen director Antoine Qurban said about 50 of the
company’s office staff had taken to the streets last week to
pick up rubbish in a symbolic gesture.
“Of course they were unable to fill the place of 2,000
workers but they were making a point to the Lebanese that this
is a respectable thing to do,” Qurban said.
“This job is not shameful because these are our streets and
our neighborhoods, we made them dirty and it is our
responsibility to keep them clean.”
Bassem al-Turk, head of the volunteer section at Sukleen,
said people were keen to help out and many were bringing their
children along to join in.
The American University of Beirut sent an email to students
calling for volunteers to help keep the neighborhood clean.
Wadad al-Hoss, volunteering with her father, former
Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss, said the campaign began
when the rubbish began to pile up and it was clear there was no
one to collect it.
“When we started out, we were only five women and two men
but now there are teams in every neighborhood,” she said.
“This is a service to the nation and to citizens. It is not
shameful; we are cleaning our streets as we clean our homes.”
Comments