Clean Up Honiara Day

Today was Officially Clean up Honiara Day!!!
Now you have to have been to Honiara to truely appreciate the magnitude of such a challenge. Honiara is a dirty, dusty, smokey kind of place. There is rubbish everywhere.....and very few services for getting rid of it. On average most Solomon Islanders would create a hang of a lot less rubbish than the average Kiwi or Aussie but with no regular rubbish collection it piles up everywhere. To make matters worse for just about everyone who lives in Honiara they don't call it home or have a heart connection with the place so don't care much about looking after it.

Well today was a mass of action. Lead by the local and RAMSI police forces hundreds of people were out picking up rubbish, clearing drains, cutting grass. Even those of us who work at the Minstry of Finance were out clearing up around our office.

Is amazing to see the transformation. The main drag through town is remarkably clean as are the surrounding areas. Of course there are now little fires everywhere burning the rubbish so is all the more smokey. But for once walking down town you don't have to watch out for piles of awful rubbish.

Will be interesting to see how long it lasts...suspect in a week you may not even be able to remember the day Honiara was clean...but it was fun and great to see so many people getting involved and caring for the city