A number of countries and cities around the world have taken steps to ensure people stay away from public areas amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
However, one city in Sweden as come up with an unusual – or maybe brilliant – idea to keep locals away from the city park.
Officials in Lund, in the south of the country, have decided to dump a tonne of chicken manure in a local park to prevent people gathering there.
Today, May 1, is a feast day for St. Walpurga, which is celebrated in several countries in northern Europe. The feast normally sees people gather in public places.
However, with Covid-19 restrictions around social distancing in place in Sweden, the powers-that-be decided that a more innovative measure was needed to keep people away today.
Not a pleasant experience
One local official, Phillip Sandberg, said on Facebook yesterday: “After a decision [of] the environment board last night, we will be making a temporary departure from our local environmental regulations to spread out a tonne of chicken manure during the day today and tomorrow on the lawn in the city park.
“Sitting…in a park that stinks of chicken manure and where it makes noise with leaf blowing and other things is not a pleasant experience. On the other hand, it is good for the lawn, as chicken manure contains a lot of phosphorus and nitrogen, so that we [will] have a really nice city park for the summer season,” Sandberg explained.
We have announced that the whole city park is closed [on this feast day] and maintenance measures are carried out on this day in the park. This is to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Another local official, Gustav Lundblad, the chairperson of the city’s environment board, was quoted in Sydsvenskan newspaper as saying: “Given that we have a situation where Lund could very well become some kind of epicenter for the spread of infection…I think that it is a good initiative.
“We get the opportunity to fertilise the lawns in the park and at the same time it will stink and then it may not be so nice to sit and drink beer in the park,” he keenly observed.
Lundblad also said that he “cannot guarantee” that the smell will be confined only to the park.
