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The participants at a June, 2007 conference in Kigali for environmental journalists designated this capital of Rwanda as the ecological capital of Africa.  Is that reasonable?

No one is permitted to arrive in Rwanda with a plastic bag that is non-biodegradable.  Unacceptable bags must be left at the border or with customs.  Like many others arriving for the first time in this country of 1,000 hills, I failed to pay attention to the rules intended to protect the environment. After passing through the police formalities at Gregoire Kayibanda Airport, a very polite gentleman responsible for environmental matters advised me, “Excuse me sir, it is strictly prohibited to enter our country with packages that could damage the environment.”

I was holding a bag with some sandals, shoe polish and a brush that I hadn’t packed in my suitcase because I didn’t have room for them.  The agent asked me to replace my plastic bag with a biodegradable one easily purchasable in Kigali

Others had to wait while I repacked my suitcase.  Finally I squeezed into the vehicle taking us to the hotel.  I scanned the streets and sidewalks for a sack tossed beside the road into town.  I didn’t see one.  The driver said, “Oh, that is normal.  We are passing on major roads through the city and it is 2:00 pm; the cleaners have passed before us earlier today.”  I certainly did not expect this.

In the days that followed, throughout the city and even 60 kms outside of the city, in a car or on foot, I continued my search for stray plastic bags.  I saw none and no refuse dumps either.  I stayed in Kigali for one week only but it doesn’t seem that this was a short-time phenomenon.  Everyone who lives in the city agrees that it is clean, in fact, very clean.

There was a press conference at the end of this major international gathering of environmental journalists.  It was co-chaired at the Serena Hotel by Christopher Bazivamo, the Rwandan Minister of Land, the Environment, Water, Trees and Mines and the President of ANEJ, Sidi El Moctor Cheiguer.  The moderator was Mrs. Rose Mukankoweje, the Director General of the Rwandan Environmental Management Authority (REMA).  It seemed to be an appropriate moment to find out how the Rwandan authorities kept their capital so clean when there are no street cleaners around.  I posed this question to the Minister who responded, “First, the importation of non-biodegradable items into Rwanda is prohibited.  The reasons are many.  Among others, they don’t disintegrate for 80 years and they impoverish soil.  Where we have found plastic in the soil, nothing grows.  We Rwandans produce our own biodegradable sacks, meaning that they decompose naturally under the effect of bacteria and microscopic mushrooms.”  Without interrupting I replied, “But your Excellency, you sell water in plastic bottles, yet we don’t see them in the streets.  What is your secret?”  He replied, “ I would have to say that our people have simply learned new habits – those that profit the environment.  Even without reminders, people now know not to dirty our public space.  They do not toss their plastic bottles randomly.”

We also learned during this press conference that on the last Saturday of each month everyone throughout the country participates in “monganda.”  This is what in ROC we used to call “hitch up your sleeves,” a practice that we have now unfortunately abandoned.

What is going on during President Paul Kagame’s administration in Rwanda is quite noteworthy.  Everyone, starting with the leadership of the country, is firmly engaged in respecting the environment.  For them it is a shared responsibility.  It is not short term, not a bunch of unheeded slogans and words.  It starts with a commitment by the leadership to change a culture (old bad habits).  The journalists who went to Kigali recognized this fact.  Thus, there was agreement to name Kigali a model city.  It remains for us Congolese to rediscover some old traditions, ones that will allow us to start cleaning up our environment.  It is past time to dispense with our own old bad habits and acquire some new good ones.