A work plan for municipality

Can you hear the promises ringing in the air? They perfume our surroundings and make us dream of a better tomorrow. Its not because we are finally putting summer’s hot days behind us but because elections are round the corner!

Although not official yet, potential candidates have started using the social media and giving tantalising sound bites on what they can do for the voters. I would like to just request my friends running for municipal elections to focus on the little picture. Municipalities are the creators of a clean and well-organised nation – not the MPs.

The Parliament looks at the larger picture of underpinning our quality of life with the necessary laws but municipality provides the bricks and mortar, as it were, of the process. When municipal councils are in action, our media is full of parks being renovated, garbage disposal being improved and Karak chai shops and sheesha cafes being monitored.

By all means, do that, it is essential to work. But there is a bigger problem looming which we can no longer afford to ignore. One of the first things that municipal councilors must do when elected this time is to tabulate all the buildings in their area which they consider dangerous to live in or which they can clearly see are being used as illegal worker camps, overcrowded and a fire and health hazard to the neighborhood.

Then they must systematically work with the property owners to either demolish these buildings or repair them and make it illegal to use it for unauthorized worker accommodation. Look at the terrible loss of life the Bahrain witnesses whenever these hovels that landlords have abandoned carelessly go up in flames. And believe me, a simple search online will show you that there are one or two such terrible fires or building collapses every year.

The latest one last week was right under the nose of the Ministry of Interior HQ, the Police Fort! Meanwhile, just a couple of kilometers away, there is a shell of a once-prosperous and prestigious twin tower building that has been abandoned but obviously in better condition than some of the broken-down buildings that actually have tens of men staying in them.

As a modern nation that has often been listed as the best place to live in, the Kingdom must do better than this. We must not just create an environment of prosperity for the managers and business-owners but also for the blue-collar worker, who is after all, the framework upon which this country grows. Inclusive growth is the buzzword for the future.