Our reporters Thijs Bouwknegt and Sebastiaan Gottlieb are at present in Rwanda for series of reports. They share with us here their first impressions of the country.
At first glance, Kigali does not feel like an African city. You cannot find any street vendors, crumbling roads nor garbage in the streets. Everything is clean and well maintained.
Model town
It looks like a model town, just like Singapore is to Asia. Motorists in the Rwandan capital behave in a disciplined way and negotiate carefully-maintained roundabouts with ease. No hooting, no unpleasant smell and no kamikaze motorcycles riding on the wrong side of the road. The town breathes calmness which brings a deep tranquility to the whole atmosphere.
Rwanda wants to be the least polluting country. Plastic bags are strictly prohibited. An excellent measure, one might believe, but it also raises problems. Artificial fertilizers, for example, quickly become wet in burlap bags and consequently are unusable. Similarly, the cement can be better kept dry in plastic bags instead of paper. But the ban on plastic is bearing its fruit.
An example to follow
The layer of plastic which in many African countries covers the fields and cities is totally absent in Rwanda. Everything is beautifully green, without a single trace of garbage. The operating power is also decreasinly polluting. The green power from Lake Kivu is replacing the plants that use coal. But this success is only relative, because Rwanda has the lowest number per capita of electrical outlets and lamps in the world. Nonetheless, the seventh poorest country in the world seems to do more to improve the environment than rich countries.
Thus, once a month there is throughout Rwanda a cleanup day in which all inhabitants have to participate. Motorists are not supposed to use their car on that day. This measure may go too far, but, we also in Europe, could start modestly by beginning to ban commissioned plastic bags.
Source:rnw.nl/
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