Bou Saâda. Boooou indeed.
I’ve so far mostly been singing praises of Algeria as a travel destination, but it’s time to look at some of the darker sides of it as well. Namely, the respect for the environment and the lack thereof shown by many of its citizens. While this of course varies in intensity from place to place, heaps of trash on the streets, long abandoned plastic bottles, sacks, shoes and refuse of all kind are a common occurrence. It’s also not uncommon to see people simply opening their car window and jettisoning out of it, whatever packaging they no longer find useful.
Which brings me to Bou Saâda. It was recommended to me by a few Algerian acquaintances I met along the way as a sight of natural beauty. Perhaps my expectations were thus somewhat raised and the letdown even harsher. While I clearly see the potential for beauty there and it likely was a sight to behold hundred years ago, today, the age of plastic has buried it in heaps of garbage, obscuring its inherent beauty. A river runs through it - Oued Bou Saâda and the riverbed that it forms, caves, rock formations around it, are one of the main tourist attractions of the place. Too bad then, that it’s all covered in abandoned plastic.
Alongside the river are apartment buildings, the inhabitants of which seem to just dump the garbage in heaps mixed with gravel alongside the buildings. Bou Saâda is just an example that irked me a bit more than usual with so many of egregious examples of dumping. It’s by no means the only place in Algeria where this is a problem. Dumping whatever used you have on you anywhere seems to be the modus operandi for many. Ironically, I’m sure that if I asked the people doing so if they love their country, they’d no doubt profess their love for it. However, I fail to see how such love for one’s country is compatible with polluting it on a daily basis and thus making it worse for your fellow citizens, as well as yourself. If this is what happens on this small-scale personal level, I shudder to think how industry operates, especially when large sums of money are involved.
By no means is this problem unique to Algeria. We all have to do better in this respect, as well as create less such refuse to begin with. Perhaps next time instead of only cheering for your country when the football World Cup comes around, cheer for your countrymen who do not litter, or better yet, pick up some of that litter yourself.
