Mursi calls on citizens to pick up garbage On 19 July President Mohamed Mursi delivered a speech to greet the nation on the advent of Ramadan , reports Reem Leila. During his speech Mursi called on youth to take part in a two-day national campaign on 27-28 July called "Clean country without garbage". After the campaign, people would be asked to keep the streets clean. Clearing the streets of piles of garbage was among the five main problems which Mursi promised to tackle during his first 100 days in office. The others were security, traffic congestion, lack of gas, and shortage of bread. During the speech, Mursi said, "We need to show the world a new image of Egypt in terms of production and hard work during Ramadan as well as the rest of the year. Our country deserves more from us, so all of us should exert the utmost effort to improve its status." The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) declared on 22 July its full support of Mursi's campaign as well as its participation in implementing it. Saad Emar, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in the Shura Council said hundreds of MB youths as well as from other political affiliations will be deployed throughout the country's streets while wearing a T-shirt with the name of Mursi's campaign on it. "We will also ask the help of members of non-governmental organisations [NGOs] as we need as many youths as possible on the streets on Friday and Saturday," said Emara. The FJP will coordinate with all authorities concerned in the country's governorates to facilitate cleaning up the streets. According to Emara, the party has prepared a three-point plan, the first of which is based on the deployment of youth on the streets not only during the two days of the campaign but until the country is rid of garbage. The party will also provide a huge number of dumpsters so that people can find a place to put their garbage in, instead of throwing them back on the streets. The second concerns training youth, whether MBs or of other political affiliations, on collectively cleaning the streets. In turn, they will train other youths until the problem is solved. The third point will focus on coordinating with all executive and security authorities in the governorate to protect youth while performing their task. "Governors along with security officials will create technical committees to communicate with executive and administrative officials to supervise the implementation of the cleaning up process," added Emara. On Friday and Saturday, youths will start cleaning up Cairo and Giza governorates. According to Mohamed Gouda, spokesman of the MB, the party will provide Mursi "with all financial and human resources possible to guarantee its success". The Muslim Brotherhood may even consider opening the door to donations to contribute in raising salaries of workers, especially those in the cleaning sector. Salaries of garbage collectors have not yet been determined, however, initial estimations say every garbage man will be paid around LE20 a day. "We intend to make the president's campaign just a beginning. We will continue because the process of collecting garbage from all governorates will take months," said Gouda. Gouda said more than 150 lorries and 20 tractors will participate in dumping the garbage "in a safe and hygienic way". The Youth of Revolution Coalition (YRC) along with numerous NGOs began cleaning Cairo's streets on 14 July by sweeping up the garbage as well as washing streets with water and detergents. The YRC also started cleaning Giza, Assiut and Qena. They have also helped localities in removing street peddlers and illegal vendors.
