The
district commissioner here, Halima Dendego, has announced plans by the
local government to undertake an improvement on the current public
cleanliness exercise in Tanga popularly known as “Kalembo Day,”
conducted every first Saturday of the month to ensure that it does not
become a nuisance to businessmen.
Announcing
plans at the first inaugural meeting of the Tanga District Business
Council (TDBC), Dendego said that under the new plans to be effective
starting next year, businesses would not be closed on ‘Kalembo Day’ as
it was the case in the past.
Closure
of businesses has caused quite a stir and has been a nuisance to
businessmen who have complained of losing profits through the exercise.
Contributing to a general discussion on the state of business in Tanga
City, a member of the council, Sadik Shembilu, said people were not
treating the day with mockery, with businessmen closing businesses as
usual but staying inside their houses without doing any kind of
cleanliness.
“It
does not serve the original purpose of cleaning the city. We thank
authorities for establishing the cleanliness drive but I think we should
change our tactics,” said Shembilu.
He suggested the use of youth brigades to clean many areas using payments from households instead of using the current system.
The
district commissioner said that the city would be divided into zones
where cleaning would be done by different sectors of the society.
“The
first zone would be where the city council is able to conduct
cleanliness without any problem. The second zone would be left to the
private sector and would include a plan to establish youth groups to do
the cleanliness for a fee,” Dendego pointed out.
She said the other zone would involve areas where the public would do cleanliness collectively (msalagambo).
“Cleanliness
in Tanga would be a 24-hour affair and the health department is
expected to take charge of the situation to ensure that everybody takes
part in the exercise.
Meanwhile,
a health department official, Joseph Mbati, said that registration of
youth groups to undertake cleaning tenders has already started and eight
groups have already been registered.