Dubai
I go for a morning walk regularly at the Al Twar Park in Dubai. Besides the walk, I enjoy my small interactions with Nature as day breaks with a beautiful sunrise.
However, on the weekends, the very mornings that I would like to spend a little bit more time in the park, it’s most distressing to see the debris from the previous evenings’ visitors and their lack of civic sense and total disdain in littering the entire park.
The park looks entirely different on weekday mornings as compared to on a weekend, especially Friday mornings. The park has children’s playing areas, greenery, and a running track. So, I find it appalling that some people are setting such a poor example for their children.
The mess left behind has resulted in an increase in the number of flies all around the park and is a deterrent to the few health conscious visitors in the morning.
I’m also quite alarmed with the high number of cigarette butts that are visible all around the park wall. Surely, smoking should be prohibited around the park, if not completely.
I hope people stop this habit of littering and the concerned authorities set up a system of making visitors behave more responsibly.
— The reader is based in Dubai.
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FACTBOX
According to a Gulf News report published on March 24, 2017, littering or dumping waste in an area will result in the municipality inspectors imposing a fine of Dh500. People who throw their cigarette butts on roads and public areas will be slapped with a Dh500 fine, too. The fine will double, then triple for each repeat offence for litterbugs.
The Dubai Municipality alone is said to spend over Dh50 million annually on the maintenance of public parks, according to a Gulf News report published in November 2013. The municipality has placed ashtrays and waste bins every 50 to 100 metres in the busy central business district areas of Bur Dubai and Deira.
