This is much more than a picture of a wall. It is the picture of a huge success for MiniActive in the A-thory / Abu Tor neighborhood.
This is more than just a wall
For years, there was no wall. It was an open space, which looked like this.
Makeshift garbage dump in A-Thory / Abu-Tor
Since February 2019, MiniActive has been working to clean up a garbage dump in the neighborhood. It was filled with household waste, which is a huge problem in East Jerusalem.
For lack of a better place, residents threw their garbage here
Another problem was that, technically, the land on which the garbage was dumped was private property, not public land, so the Municipality was technically not responsible to clean it up. However, only the Municipality had the tools and equipment to clean it up properly, and it is their responsibility to provide sanitation services to residents. MiniActive held a number of meetings with those responsible to work out a solution. Residents also wrote three letters, demonstrating their own commitment to help keep the area clean in the future. These letters included:
- A commitment to make sure the area remains clean, and ensuring that residents won’t throw their garbage there.
- A commitment to put garbage receptacles beside every building.
- A commitment not to burn garbage or garbage receptacles (which is sometimes done in East Jerusalem as a last-ditch effort to get rid of garbage) and that they’ll report to the Municipality every time garbage is not collected regularly.
After two weeks of cleaning up, better but still not completed
The process of cleaning up the area began in mid-September, and lasted until the end of October. Here’s a Facebook post from the beginning of work in mid-September:
Here’s a later Facebook post, from the middle of work in early October.
In November, the owner added the wall, to prevent further dumping.
Ensuring a clean area
Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and to Natan for their support of MiniActive!
