BLUEFIELDS, Westmoreland — Over the next four months members of this community will engage in a friendly contest to see who will walk away with a handful of prizes that will be awarded during the Bluefields Best Kept Street competition.

The contest, which was launched on December 9 and will run until April 2022, is expected to boost residents’ civic pride and encourage them to adopt environmentally friendly practices.

“Who knows, Bluefields Jamaica could become the Kigali of Rwanda,” a jovial Keith Wedderburn, owner of Bluefields Organic Farm and the brains behind the contest, told the Jamaica Observer. UN Habitat declared Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali as one of Africa’s cleanest in 2008, largely due to the absence of plastic waste.

The competition is meant to motivate community members to clean, beautify and maintain their street and front yard. Those who enter will have a chance of winning up to five awards: most visually attractive, most attractive front garden, best recycling practice, best kept street/anti-litter and there will also be an award for young persons who played a role in the street named the best kept.

Wedderburn said during the launch of the competition that he first thought of the idea in September then shared his vision with community members and other stakeholders. The contest will include streets from Belmont to Cherry Hill Road. The entrepreneur has managed to collect more than US$650 (more than J$100,000) which, he said, will go towards the prizes.

The project has received a lot of support from various stakeholders, many of whom attended the launch.

According to Detective Sergeant Khainne Berry, the Bluefields police see the competition as a way to make the community better. “Bluefields would be the best place to live, retire, raise [a] family, vacation and relax,” said Berry.

An excited Barrington Taylor, who attended on behalf of the National Environmental and Planning Agency (NEPA), said they are “fully committed” to the project. NEPA has hit the ground running in providing support. At the end of the launch Taylor demonstrated how to properly build a compost, which is a solid waste management tool.

The health department is also on board and a number of its team members were also at the launch. “I’m happy that this initiative was thought of and the health department is more than happy to partner and give our expertise in the successful implementation [of the project],” said environmental health safety specialist Gavin Fletcher.

The municipal corporation has also given the project its seal of approval. Councillor caretaker for the Whitehouse Division, Michael Jackson said that when he first heard of the project he had to share it with the mayor, who is in support of the initiative.

“At this time of the year, the street should be abuzz,” shared Jackson who described the project as an excellent idea.

Wedderburn is pleased with the pledges of support and hopes more community members will join in.

“I believe this project could be adopted in other areas of Jamaica and become a catalyst for change in communities,” he told the Observer.

— Kimberley Peddie