People caught littering the streets, beaches and public places in Bahrain's Capital Governorate will be fined BD10 from today.

Those caught violating the new rule for a second time by municipal inspectors will have to pay BD20 every time.

Others who are caught littering from their cars have already been targeted from last week in co-ordination with the Interior Ministry under a soft launch of a new campaign to maintain the governorate's cleanliness.

A BD15,000 awareness campaign is also being carried out by the Manama Municipality in all malls in the governorate and 160 banners are being posted on lamp posts in Manama.

Awareness campaigns were held yesterday in Lulwa, Dana and Bahrain malls and one will be held on Thursday at the Seef Mall.

Brochures, stickers and gifts are being distributed to people visiting stalls set-up at the malls.

"The Manama Municipality's objective is to make the governorate similar to Singapore, which is known for its extreme cleanliness," said municipality director-general Abdulkarim Hassan.

"This is in line with our development plans as we are trying to turn Manama into a modern city. The municipality has made great efforts and spent millions of dinars to maintain the cleanliness of the city.

"We have removed 50,214 tonnes of household waste during the first half of this year, in addition to the 2,890 tonnes of solid waste from demolition and construction, 514 tonnes of waste from gardens and trees and 2,953 tonnes of other waste such as furniture. In addition, we have removed 216 tonnes of waste from the capital's coasts."

He said the municipality's main problem was the continuous littering and dumping of waste on the roads.

"In order to preserve the reputation of Bahrain and protect its national interest in maintaining the civilised face of Manama, the municipality has also resolved to address the littering problem by initiating the Cleanliness Trustees.

"It calls for recruiting volunteers from the general public wearing campaign badges to approach littering violators, get their details and report them to the municipality."

He said that the objective was to reduce litter and waste thrown in the streets, roads, beaches and public places through fines.

"It also aims at raising the awareness of the harmful effect of litter on the environment," said Hassan. - TradeArabia News Service