Hilma Nakanduungile
Katima Mulilo-Katima Mulilo Town Council recently launched the first of its kind cleaning campaign under the theme: ‘Team Up To Clean Up’, which intends to improve the image of the town, hence improving and promoting healthy living to attract potential investors.
Speaking during the official launch of the campaign at the Katima Mulilo Open Market last Friday, Katima Mulilo CEO Raphael Liswaniso said the programme was essentially an environmental awareness campaign that attempts to encourage residents to take more proactive role in caring for the environment.
Liswaniso added that the campaign aims to raise awareness about the negative impacts that unsanitary behaviour has on the environment and to encourage and enforce more positive behaviour, such as not littering, cleaning up public places and caring for and protecting the environment.
“Katima Mulilo Town Council has to start taking pride in our country, including our town and our environment. Everyone one of us complains about garbage in our community, but none of us takes a responsibility to for it. Let us make sure that Katima Mulilo Town becomes the cleanest town in Namibia,” Liswaniso urged.
At the same occasion, Katima Mulilo Mayor Georgina Mwiya-Simataa said the cleaning campaign which is ongoing will make a huge difference to the town and the country at large.
She stressed that considering the topography of the town, surrounded as it is by rivers and bordering four countries, it is vital that the town is kept clean at all times, for they do not want to be the gateway only, but also to attract investors to their beautiful town.
“The attraction of investors will definitely play a big role in the reduction of youth unemployment, as stipulated in the Harambee Prosperity Plan,” said Mwiya-Simataa. She further urged all stakeholders, departments and other spheres of government, civic society and communities at all levels to get on board for the campaign to be a success.
“Let us take pride in what we have and what we can contribute to the growth of this of this town. We do acknowledge that our resources are limited, but let us make use of the little we have. Utilise the provided bins to dispose waste rather than littering at any place as you wish. Let us be responsible,” Mwiya-Simataa urged.
Community members and officials from a range of institutions, such as Zambezi Regional Council, Katima Mulilo Town Council, Zambezi Vocational Training Centre, as well as police officers and others participated in the campaign, which concentrated on the Central Business District (CBD).
According to the mayor, the campaign will later be extended to the suburbs. She also highlighted that the office of the CEO plans to introduce a competition in the suburbs, whereby the cleanest will be awarded a rotating trophy and a prize attached to it.
* Hilma Nakanduungile is an information officer in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, based in the Zambezi Region.