The mayor of Paris said the city would spend 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) to rid the French capital of rats and install more public ashtrays to clean up the city’s streets.
In an interview Mayor Anne Hidalgo unveiled a 10-point plan aimed at making cleanliness a “priority”.
The measures include increasing the number of sanitation workers and health inspectors, expanding the hours for garbage pickup, and urging restaurants and buildings to provide more ashtrays at entrances and exit points.
Municipal workers collect more than 150 tonnes of cigarette butts every year in Paris.
“We already allot 500 million euros a year for cleanliness and waste management…and the situation has improved,” she said. “But it is clear that Paris is not yet perfectly clean.”
“I want to speed up, increase efforts. It is a top priority,” she said.
“In a civilised city, cleanliness must be everybody’s responsibility,” she said, calling for a change in the mindsets and habits of residents.
“In Tokyo, everything is clean and yet there are no dustbins because people wait to get home before throwing their waste.”
Paris had come under fire in December for allegedly dragging its feet before it launched what has been dubbed its “war on rats”.
Most of the criticism was centred on Hidalgo and the city’s environmental health services chief.
The city’s failure to keep the streets clean was also a major sticking point for residents, as a scathing commentary at the time in the conservative daily Le Figaro targeting the eco-friendly mayor revealed.
