EVERY weekday before office workers and joggers descend on Suva, Marshall Narayan is already there, clearing away the rubbish.
By the next morning, it’s back again.
For the past year, the Suva City Council worker — who has served for 21 years — has been tasked with cleaning the park daily.
Mr Narayan said the never-ending clean up had become a stark sign of a growing disregard for public spaces.
“No matter how clean we leave it, when we come back the next morning it’s the same,” he said.
Contrary to common complaints, Mr Narayan said the issue was not the absence of rubbish bins. Bins, he stressed, were provided by the council and placed around the park.
“But they are not utilised,” he said.
Most of the rubbish is left exactly where people sit to eat, rest or socialise. He regularly collects fast-food wrappers from nearby restaurants and outlets, empty containers and bottles from gardens, footpaths, and seating areas.
“People just leave it there and go.”
He believes the problem points to a wider decline in civic responsibility.
“We have our own way of thinking about how we use things that are provided to us. Most people are lazy. They leave it where they are sitting.”
He said the situation worsened over the past year, with fewer people appearing to take responsibility for their surroundings.
Lasting change, he said, depended on the behaviour of park users.
“If everyone just picked up after themselves, this place would stay clean.”
