This is the story that has a happy ending, thanks to the involvement of MiniActive and local residents.
This is what the kids saw at the entrance to their kindergarten
A new kindergarten director noticed a severe sanitation problem, basically right outside her door. There was an area that was not only filled to overflowing with household garbage, there was quite a bit of construction waste there too. In addition, the supporting wall to the kindergarten, which is adjacent to this ‘corner garbage dump,’ is in danger of collapsing, due to the garbage and construction nearby that dug beneath the wall.
Discussing how to improve A-Tur together
Whose responsibility was it to clean this situation up? That’s a good question – City sanitation is definitely the Municipality’s job. But are they responsible for the construction waste, when it was there because of private construction? What about the supporting wall of the kindergarten, which is rented from a private owner by the Municipality?
Working together to make A-Tur cleaner
MiniActive, the residents and the Municipality discussed these issues back and forth over a full month. On October 31, the municipal director for sanitation in East Jerusalem toured the area with residents in A-Tur. They came to an agreement of who will do what:
- The residents would properly dispose of the construction waste and repave the area.
- The Municipality agreed to sweep the streets regularly and to empty the garbage receptacle every two days.
- The residents, together with the kindergarten landlord, will collect money to re-build the faulty wall.
- The residents also agreed to cordon off an area for garbage, so that it won’t spill out onto the street.
The ‘after’ picture – all cleaned up and re-paved
Congratulations A-Tur! We’ll keep you posted on further developments.
Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its continuing support of the MiniActive project.
Here’s the ‘before’ situation, as picked up by the 0202 Facebook page:
Here’s the final product in English, from the 0202 Facebook page:
And here’s the original post in Arabic:
