Abu Dhabi parks filled with rubbish

Cleaner Rahul Pal picks up litter at at Baynunah Park in Abu Dhabi. Vidhyaa for The National

ABU DHABI // As the sun rises on one of the capital’s most popular parks, there are two things that are sure to be a familiar sight: an abundance of rubbish strewn across the grassy areas and the workmen in overalls armed with litter pickers, whose job every morning is to remove any trace of the picnickers the day before.

A glance around Baynunah Park, off the Corniche, and everything, from discarded chicken legs, half-full bottles of soda, drink cartons and empty cigarette packets, are piled under almost every tree and by every bench. Someone had abandoned a flip-flop.

Some park users had made a half-hearted attempt to bag their rubbish. Few, it seems, had bothered to finish the job and properly dispose of their rubbish in the several dustbins and large green rubbish containers prominently displayed around the large park area.

Last Saturday, Rahul Pal unrolls and shakes out a black dustbin bag and spears a juice carton into the bag.

“Plastic bottles and cans all over,” said the 19-year-old Indian when asked what was the most common type of litter he comes across. “All litter – plastic bags, charcoal (from the barbecue). All types.”

Sonu Singh, who oversees the litter clean-up at the park, said a team of workers arrives early every morning to clean up.

Saturday is by far the busiest day of the week for his workers, said the 21-year-old Indian.

His workers collected rubbish with litter pickers, others used blowers and cleaning equipment to wash and clean tiled pathways and benches.

“It takes three, four hours to clean up,” he said.