And it's not just the streets - the city after the hurricane is still in, well, a slight state of disarray. There are still cables strewn across the roads, even after the clean up campaign. And even before the hurricane, the cemetery had broken graves and overgrown grass, and there is garbage piling up on the streets.
The mayor told us today that it's all a work in progress, but the residents of the city also need to do their part to keep it clean.
Courtney Menzies:
"What are your plans to address the state of the city?"
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"It's a work in progress. We know we where we want to reach with how this city looks but it requires participation of different stakeholders, it requires the participation of families, it requires the participation of communities. I saw a news item this week in the Plues Street, South Street area. That area, we have cleaned that area multiple times and as we finish clean that area, the residents of that area, who have to now practice some level of civic pride go right back and throw the garbage there. Listen man, we aren't charging you to pick up the garbage so the least thing you can do is buy a bin and put your garbage in the bin so that when that garbage truck comes, they are able to pick up the garbage but you have to exercise some level of civic pride. Our kids are watching us, you as a parent if you throw that garbage your child is watching you, and what you think that child will do? Down the road the child will throw the garbage because he or she sees their parent doing the same so we have to start from us, the residents of that community."
