Editorial

Despite all the talk of plans for improvement in the island's environment and, to be fair, of the progress made in some areas, the fact is that the island's appearance remains generally scruffy. In far too many places, the situation is worse today than it has ever been. Add to the general neglect the environmental chaos the road building programme has created in certain prime localities and you have a situation closely resembling a war-torn site.

New roads we must certainly have if we want to improve our qualify of life. Many of our roads are more fit for off-roading than for normal traffic. So, there is no question about the fact that motorists are prepared to grin and bear the (great) inconvenience which the digging up of roads is creating in so many places, knowing at least that soon they are bound to go through new roads without risking further damage to their cars and nerves.

The problem insofar as the general appearance of the island is concerned goes far beyond the digging up of roads, although even here greater planning and organisation could well help reduce the people's frustration. What irks is our seeming inability to get to grips with the neglect itself, with tackling basic matters. This has become a serious flaw in our environmental planning. There appears to be no sense of priority, a point that has been emphasised so repeatedly over the years.

True, an effort has been made in recent years to rehabilitate some roundabouts and central strips but however welcome this is, the work that needs to be done with a sense of urgency is far more basic than planting flowers and shrubs. Drive around the island and one of the first things that strikes you is the number of poles and signs that are either knocked down or twisted, giving the impression of an island just hit by a hurricane.

In some places, road and country verges are littered with plastic bottles and rubbish, giving an aura of general degradation that ought to make us blush with shame. Other major eyesores are the knocked down boundary walls or kerbs, or walls with gaping holes in several places, loose stone slabs left on or under pavements and mounds of rubbish that collect in corners here and there.

True, financial and manpower resources are tight but is it beyond our means and ability to organise a few teams of workers and charge them with carrying out specific basic tasks on an on-going basis? If we were to just concentrate on what counts most, the island would make a big leap forward in its general appearance. At least, we would not give the impression, as we are doing now, that we do not care about our own environment.

Maintenance of public places often takes place when deterioration sets in and in reaction to calls from the public or in the run-up to a Commonwealth Heads of Government summit as seems to be the case right now! Why should this be so? Are there no people charged with ensuring that public places are well maintained all the time? Why, for instance, should bins be left overflowing before they are emptied?

When it becomes part of the country's general routine to see to such basic environmental matters, we would then be able to move to the next step, that of embellishing the country. And there is much that can be done to give the island a more colourful look besides planting flowers in roundabouts!