DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- "They are doing the right thing at the right time," said Shakira Athuman, a resident in Tanzania's port city of Dar es Salaam, of a cleanup campaign underway in the East African country.
Shakira, 17, who completed Form Four at Open Joy Secondary School in Mbweni in Dar es Salaam in December 2022, was paying tribute to The City Clean Tanzania campaign dedicated to collecting waste in the East African nation's tourism hotspots of Arusha and Dar es Salaam cities, Moshi municipality in Kilimanjaro region and Zanzibar Island.
Shakira, head of the community affairs department for the Youth Investors Association, an organization that was created by enthusiastic young people with support from parents and teachers, praised The City Clean Tanzania after she had participated in the collection of waste in the port city of Dar es Salaam Tuesday.
"I have teamed up with The City Clean Tanzania to clean some parts of the port city of Dar es Salaam that are mostly littered with all sorts of wastes, making the city an eyesore," she said. "If we keep our cities clean we won't catch diseases. In addition, we will be able to attract tourists from across the world."
The City Clean Tanzania is a movement established early this year to undertake waste management in the cities of Arusha and Dar es Salaam, Moshi municipality and Zanzibar Island with a view to promoting sustainable tourism.
Michael Gombe, the co-organizer of The City Clean Tanzania, told Xinhua in an interview that the objective of the movement is to mobilize international organizations, including agencies of the United Nations, foreign and local non-governmental organizations, hotels, schools, colleges and universities to voluntarily come together to clean and pick up waste from the streets and beaches in the four major urban centers in Tanzania.
"We have successfully conducted the campaigns in Arusha city and Moshi municipality, and now we have moved to Dar es Salaam city before proceeding to Zanzibar," said Gombe, adding that The City Clean Tanzania is partnering with recycling companies that deal in managing all the wastes collected.
According to Gombe, the campaigns started on Jan. 15, 2023, and will end on Feb. 15, 2023. "We believe this is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness among organizations and the public about pollution, waste management, and recycling," he said, suggesting cities should be kept clean to attract tourists from around the world.
Gombe, 33, said since the campaigns started, more than five metric tons of different wastes, mainly from homes, in Arusha and Moshi, have been collected. In each city, between 30 and 300 people volunteered to join the cleanup activities every day and the activities last for one week in each of the four major urban centers, he said.
"The main objective of these campaigns is to promote sustainable tourism," he said. "We have realized that tourists don't want to visit areas littered with waste because it is dangerous for their health. Nobody would like to visit places that endanger their health and lives. We have to conserve the environment for the tourists and for the country's future generations."
After the campaign, the movement will have gained experience through learning by doing, and understanding what is happening in the community, said Gombe. "At the end of the one-month campaign, we expect to see a great social impact with many new sustainable partnerships."
