Visitors misuse the Coastal Strip

PANAMA. Visitors to the Panama City’s Coastal Strip are enjoying the new facilities and then leaving it covered in a layer of garbage. Even though the Mayor's office has installed 90 trash cans along the 3. 5 km strip, and designated 48 sanitation workers, known as hormiguitas (little ants), to sweep the area during the day with another 20 to do the same at night, users are still dropping their litter.

To help create environmental consciousness and to educate and convince people about the correct way to dispose of garbage, the Mayor's office has developed the campaign Caza cochinos (Catch the litter bugs), with somewhat positive results. Eighteen youths dressed up as mimes walk around the strip pulling red cards on the people they catch throwing garbage on the ground. To the ones putting the trash inside the cans they give a round of applause.

For Harmodio Montaner, director of the Municipal Direction of Urban and Domiciliary Maintenance (DIMAUD), one of the inconveniences of the project is that the 10 public restrooms along the strip are still not available. But, in any case, just 10 restrooms for the thousands of weekend visitors are not going to solve the problem.