Hannelore Ottevaere got tired one day in September of seeing so much dirt around the Chayofita urbanization, on the Costa del Silencio (Arona), while she was walking her two dogs and said: “Enough, I can’t take it anymore.” She called her daughter and the two began removing cans, cardboard, bottles and plastic tangled in the cacti. Her spontaneous action caused an immediate effect: several neighbors joined in the task.
That was the embryo of Costa del Silencio Limpio, a group made up of a dozen residents led by this Belgian citizen who has lived since 1999 in the urbanization that received the first tourists who came to the South and that three times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday) goes out into the streets with bags, buckets, brushes, dustpans and rakes to eliminate any waste they find in public spaces.
“Almost all of us are women, mostly Belgian and Italian, although there is also a Colombian girl who helps me do the extras and the revisions,” Hannelore explained to this newspaper, who misses the presence of a neighbor of Spanish nationality in the team, because “people keep signing up.”
“When they see us at work, people encourage us, they thank us, and the cars even touch our whistles,” says Hannelore, while she and her team of volunteers collect all types of waste: “What we encounter the most is They are cans of energy drinks, cheap beers, bottles and packets of tobacco, but also abandoned wheels, some sofas and bags and suitcases, probably stolen.” The zafarranchos have included some surprises, such as the appearance of a 20-euro bill and another 5-euro bill, which have been donated to the La Esperanza del Sur animal shelter, in Parque La Reina (Arona).
Social networks applaud the work of the Costa del Silencio Limpio volunteers. The last action of last week was close to 2,000 likes yesterday on Facebook, where four accounts spread the work carried out by the collective: Costa del Silencio, Inhabitants of Costa del Silencio and Las Galletas, Costa del Silencio Residents and Las Galletas.
GENERATE AWARENESS
Hannelore insists on “grabbing the problem at its roots” and to do so he emphasizes the importance of raising awareness among the population from an early age: “Please, teachers, educators, fathers and mothers, set an example and talk about this issue with young people, I beg you; Tell them that there are volunteer people trying to keep these places clean.” She admits that it is demoralizing to see how after cleaning a sidewalk, “half an hour later, Kleenex, some juice cartons, and remains of pipes, appear again lying on the ground.”
He explains that in countries like Belgium, if a cigarette butt is thrown into the street or a dog’s excrement is not collected or even a container is placed in the wrong container, the fine is 250 euros, “and everywhere there are cameras.”
The citizen brigade against dirt still has “several weeks” left in Ten-Bel, then it will be time to work hard in Garañaña, “where there is a ravine full of cans, mattresses and even HiperDino carts” and the next thing will be the three parking lots from Las Galletas. “And from there, start again, so we will have to form patrols.”
Hannelore appreciates the support they receive from the mayor of Arona, Fátima Lemes, and the councilor responsible for the cleaning service, Clari Pérez. In fact, all the material used in the zafarranchos has been donated by the City Council. “We are in contact by WhatsApp and they respond to our suggestions. A few days ago, the ground of a sidewalk was very sticky from the dates fallen from the palm trees and, after informing Clari, within 48 hours the street was already signposted with a notice to carry out pruning work,” she said.
