An environmental program aimed at reducing the level of pollution in the Sur-Isleta neighborhood of Guantanamo City was awarded the annual award of the Small Donations Program (SDP) of the UN, according to local Venceremos newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the Ecological Processing Center for Solid Urban Waste, (CEPRU in Spanish) located in the subject neighborhood, was awarded with the prize by that UN program. It was granted for the effectiveness of the local initiative in turning a garbage dump into an organic fertilizer-producing garden.

A website of the UN says that the SPD began actions after the Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 as a way to prove that local initiatives can have a beneficial impact on global environmental problems.

The CEPRU, operating in the most eastern province of Cuba, is an environmental program created in 2000 under the initiative of its current director Irania Martinez Garcia. It is also responsible of the reduction of the burning city waste, which was out of control. These spread plagues and were breeding grounds for disease carrying animals. The CEPRU has also become a source of jobs for hundreds of residents from the community.

The experience has also brought about the recovery of species of flora and raw materials, the protection and rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems, and the creation of environment-oriented clubs to promote an environmental culture among people in the area through.

Source: Juventud Rebelde