Environmental Issues in Taiz City

The garbage dump, my dear brother. I mean, these are Al-Saleh Gardens, a park, a park, and it's also in the areas where clashes have taken place and fighting.

Uh, the brothers at the Cleaning and Improvement Fund within the administration and the city of Taiz made us pray for the soul of martyr Afthan Al-Mashhari, may God have mercy on her.

I mean, as soon as I announced the initiative and the opening of the road to Al-Qasr State, she immediately sent her workers and equipment to remove the waste and so on from the road, to prepare it May God grant her the mercy of the righteous.

Uh, what happened today was, I mean, a charade.

I think it was more of that than a truly serious matter.

I mean, the issue, because they took one of the vehicles and went to the gardens.

We're talking about the main waste transfer site in the governorate, at the Shar'ab junction, and we proposed route options, three roads, for them to choose one.

They can choose to take them all over, we have no objection.

What matters to us is easing this environmental disaster I mean, this isn't the first initiative we've offered.

During Ms. Iftihan Al- Mashhari’s time, we launched more than one initiative on this issue, but we all sense her sense of responsibility and her concern about the issue, and her effort to raise the reward for the kilns.

I don’t know how Al- Saleh Gardens turned into a garbage dump.

Of course, we presented this from the very first dialogue sessions with her, with the— with the parties, with those who say— with the de facto authorities in the city center.

From the very first day, we raised the issue of the— uh, vehicles going out to dump the— waste at the— at the— at the main waste disposal site at the governorate level.

And, I mean, I remember one of the so- called deputy governors, I mean, at one point he was checking because he was afraid the garbage trucks might say something like that, We told him, this is a public announcement to everyone,

a moral commitment from everyone, that in the end this is the garbage area that— that we’ve suffered a lot from, and we don’t need to detain anyone, and it’s not possible to detain the garbage area.

In the end, it's a service for citizens, a service for people, and its harm, well, it comes back on us and them.

I mean, it's a matter of, a disaster threatening the groundwater, threatening the future of this city and its residents.

So, from this standpoint alone, I mean. The matter isn't about how much they did, or taking a little detour to Habib Salman, or going back from the central prison and saying, “They stopped us,” or whatever.

Anyway, whatever the case, maybe they wanted to save face in front of society, to get out from under the pressure of the public and the street, because people see trash piling up, piling up, turning into a sacred thing.

But we assure them that our efforts on this matter are humanitarian, and they're based on the idea that even Almighty God doesn't hold people accountable, because, out of a sense of responsibility, they acted together, didn't, didn't, didn't do anything to ease this burden on citizens.

Because in the end, if our goal isn't to ease the burden on citizens and serve them, then what good is our struggle, our fighting, or anything like that, or any competition? What is all this about?

The principle is that we compete to serve the people, and people should make an effort on this matter.

So this whole issue was, I mean, absurd, the matter of throwing garbage in— well, in the parks, if they can even be called parks.

And I’m surprised they’re promoting this on media outlets like Al Jazeera and some channels.

The point is, it’s, I mean, an attempt, I mean, to cover up the shortcomings of the practices they carried out.

But I assure them that this matter excuses no one, and we must work hard to make sure that the vehicles reach the main garbage dump, the main waste transfer— transfer dump in Shar'ab, which is temporary.

But in the long term, we need to prepare the dump in Al-Barh, which was purchased earlier by the local authority leadership.

But for now, as a temporary measure, at least some things are better than others.

I mean, rather than saying that this is Taiz’s park, Al-Dhabab, a park for everyone, for all the city’s residents, everyone goes out to this valley, to this…

Among these thickets, beneath the trees, under and so on.

If we’ve thrown waste over there, then that means we’ve polluted that area, which means we’ve killed the plants there.

So the consequences are really serious, so…

I hope it’s handled responsibly, without any scheming, and peace be upon you.