My five-year-old is always lamenting the fact that we as Jamaicans litter so much; frankly, she’s always saying, “it’s disgusting”, so when she came with me to the Mona Dam for a jog, she couldn’t fathom that such a beautiful place was littered with so much unsightly garbage and that after so many weeks it had not been cleaned up. So we decided to Do-It-Ourselves and take one afternoon off from jogging to tackle the clean-up.

To keep hygienic while doing it we wore rubber gloves to cover our hands and we saved our backs giving out from bending over constantly, by making our own ‘trash picker-upper’ because we couldn’t find any in the shops. Once again, Shane at Super Value Home Centre was a huge help, because he helped me find all I needed and even removed the head of the screw I used.

To make your own trash picker-upper, all you need is:

o A rake/broom stick (Cost $180)

o A long nail/screw (at least six inches long with the head cut off) that cost only $35

o Hammer

Then all you need do is:

o Hammer the nail in/ Screw in the screw

o Remove the head of the screw/nail if not already done

And you are ready to clean up. This project is quick and easy and costs only $215.

The garbage at the Mona Dam washes down in the water, then I guess it blows up on to the track, so the lesson here is to just not litter, because you don’t know where your garbage will end up.