So long pine trees, mounds of trash are now spiraling up around my house, posing a delectable change of scenery that oozes of nauseating smells.

To add to injury, the municipality had plastered a memo on the building gate in which it chartered its annual fees, urging residents to pay their dues.

For a split second, I craved an act of defiance. I wanted to retaliate against all the hardships we have been enduring by not sparing a single dime back.

It can be understood as civic disobedience but these kingpins of human misery have to be held accountable, they have to be stopped from grasping their next corrupt deal.

And as thoughts and views rattle and dither over a solid plan for the trash crisis, the end solution seems to drift farther with each failed attempt.

Rest assured the crisis will have to stretch over months before an effective solution could be conceived, much like other pending issues shelved by the Cabinet.

But we cannot always turn a blind eye, the problem could stir up grave complications to the health of citizens. A flurry of diseases and virus could take hold of our kids and seriously impact our quality of life.

We, as true citizens, must aim for administrative decentralization as it has been repeatedly touted for by party leaders such as Kataeb Chief Sami Gemayel and Lebanese Forces Head Samir Geagea.

With an open call for decentralization by our leaders, they can set talks with municipality leaders in motion so as to effect a compatible solution, finding a landfill of health and environmental standards to absorb the waste of each district.

Why not? What are we waiting for?

We have long ditched the fascinating idea of a newly minted president and have given up on the promise of legislations. The government’s resignation threats have become as stale as our daily bread, our wildest dreams and ambitions shrugged off over one basic demand: Clean streets.

You've been handed down a golden opportunity, go ahead and seize it because, this once, the people have your back.

There’s not a greater cause that could kick in a tremendous debut towards decentralization, and free the country from the government’ sordid practice as hard as a trash crisis.

An article originally written in Arabic by Nada Khoury.