Susan Wood
Quito, 14 sep (EFE).-Quito, a city with character, alma, history, and that beauty has earned the nickname “Face of God”, suffers daily aggression of some of its inhabitants, shamelessly pulling bottles, papers, and shells of banana in their parks and squares, nonsense that is now salda with fines.
That you know little about the genesis of the nickname does not prevent the inhabitants of Quito, natives or not, repeat it constantly in an echo that has surpassed generations.
“I do not know where does exactly this term or when, but I matches it with that it is a very beautiful city, with that (2,850 meters above sea level) is very high, which is close to heaven,” he told Efe Luz Elena Coloma, general manager of the municipal enterprise of tourism.
A city “so beautiful”, sometime also inspired some poet to call it the “antechamber of heaven”, a nickname that could motivate residents to ensure that the “face of God” is “impeccable”, said Coloma.
But you who christened it thus look to heights because on the floor – without disregarding the beauty of the city–the reality is different, as evidenced by 200,000 gum launched in the Centre of the city, according to estimates by the municipality, and the piles of remains that cover the parks on Sundays, are removed when the visitors.
Local authorities have taken cards in the matter and they have raised $ 270,000 in just four months for different offences with a new Ordinance.
Penalties, going almost 53 dollars to 528, sanction from have neglected or dirty the sidewalk of the residence or business, to throwing butts from cigarettes and other waste, and maintain public space material construction, explained to Efe Johana puffing, responsible for the Metropolitan Agency Control.
In Ecuador is not surprising to see people throwing garbage into the street, walking or from the Windows of vehicles, and many are not even aware that do something evil.
“Is cult, boat waste out of the window,” is a sticker that has been seen in the past in some public service buses and to Coloma is “absolutely shocking”, because it can be interpreted as public space does not matter because “someone is going to clean up”.
So well recorded Juan GarcÃa, a Spanish that shortly after arriving in Quito to a boy of thirteen years to return a waste that it threw out the window of a school bus left without words: “You fell”, he said. As a response received a silence marked by confusion and shame.
Are never missing the persevering as Jimena Pérez, a pensioner who is outraged when he sees someone throwing trash that, despite the warning of their relatives about possible insults, unable to contain himself and delivers a sound “cochino” the offender.
Puffing declared “hopeful” that the campaign for the dissemination of the Ordinance and the collaboration of the community reaches a point where it is not necessary to fine for dirty Quito, which this year is the Capital American the culture
Focused his faith in childhood because “they are those who educate parents” and claim them for throwing garbage through the Windows, criterion that shares the historian Lucia Moscoso, who deeply loves his Quito, whose historic center, where she lives, prompted Unesco to declare the first Cultural Heritage in 1978.
Away the city’s poetic and romantic visions, Quito is a city with problems such as the big metropolis, but in matters of management of waste, more words, words less, many agree that the solution depends on education to respect “their house”.
Although the situation has improved, depending on the sectors, Coloma qualifies with a six on ten cleansing of Quito, inhabited by more than 2.2 million inhabitants. “It is impossible to have a clean city if there isn’t an improvement in the public attitude and there is missing a lot,” he noted. EFE
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