Twice more people willing to engage in “Come on, Moldova!” campaign

One in five persons heard about the cleanup campaign “Come on, Moldova!” and the number of those who want to become involved in it has doubled compared with last year, shows a survey commissioned by the Social Movement “Come on, Moldova!” and carried out by the Marketing and Polling Institute IMAS, Info-Prim Neo reports. IMAS director Doru Petruti told a news conference that 7% of the respondents said they took part in the similar event held last year. 14% of those polled expressed readiness to get involved in the campaign this year. This wish is not uniformly spread by sections of people. For example, this wish of the men from small towns is much lower. Doru Petruti said that despite the increased interest in the cleanup campaigns (a lot - 25%, much interest - 44%) and the acknowledged need for such events (60% consider them very necessary), almost three quarters of the respondents complained that no attention is paid to the environment-related problems in their settlements. 86% of those questioned said they have a passive and very passive attitude towards the environment-related problems. This can be explained by the acute lack of information. Almost 90% of the respondents consider they are insufficiently informed about this subject. The IMAS director also said that the responsibility for such problems is put on the local public authorities, the Government and the NGOs. The percentage of individual responsibility is very low even if 60% of the respondents agreed that the environment-related issues have a direct impact on them. Over three thirds of those polled believe more funds should be allocated for the protection of environment and the laws and environment taxes and penalties should be toughened up. However, the respondents said they would prefer a ‘humane” penalty rather than a penalty on the part of the authorities. Doru Petruti said that when the problems are treated at individual level, the people are ready to take part in environment campaigns, while at collective level there is no such wish. The specialists recommended focusing the future awareness-raising campaign on values and benefits for the individuals and collectives, and increasing the visibility degree among the ethnic groups – the Russians, Ukrainians, Gagauzians and others. The national poll “Come on, Moldova” was conducted between March 17 and 21. It covered a sample of 820 respondents from 115 villages and towns, except the Transnistrian region, who were contacted by phone. The margin of sampling error is ±3.4%.