Thank God for the cleaners who keep Southbank going

It is sometimes said that, throughout history, plumbers have saved more lives than medical doctors. While that claim carries more than a hint of class warfare, it does underscore the vital importance of sanitation and clean water to city life.

Infectious diseases spread more easily where people and animals live close together, and where communities rely on common sources of water and food. Keeping our spaces and places clean helps keep us all healthy and alive.

Alongside valuing those who design, build and maintain public health and sanitation systems, I also want to express particular gratitude for those who do the daily work of keeping our city environments clean.

Most mornings I am up early, walking through Southbank. At that hour I often share the streets with extraordinary numbers of cleaners restoring our private and public spaces before most residents have even risen. They are often treated as an unremarkable workforce, too easily dismissed as “unskilled” and therefore underpaid. Yet their life-sustaining work is rarely recognised for what it is.

Our cleaners deal with the debris most of us would rather not see. They clear away the wreckage left behind as big nights out come to untidy ends. They mop up spilled food, empty bins, seal rubbish bags and help limit the spread of rodents and vermin. They wash building entrances and footpaths so that by the time most of us step outside, there is little trace of what came before. And they do it every day. This is not a once-a-week tidy-up. We rely on cleaners daily to keep our shared spaces safe, healthy and fit for life.

I suspect that, for the most part, cleaners are transparent to us, if not entirely invisible. We expect tidy streets and orderly foyers without giving much thought to who makes that possible, or what that work asks of them.

As I walk around the neighbourhood, I have come to know some of our cleaners. They are a friendly bunch who appreciate the smallest acknowledgement. While we may have grown comfortable with their invisibility, they know exactly who they are, where they are and what they do for the rest of us. They see, smell and handle what we expect to remain unseen. That alone is worthy of our thanks.

These early morning walks remind me that there are people quietly caring for the rest of us while the city is still half asleep. If plumbers, alongside medical professionals, help save lives, then cleaners must surely belong in that same blessed company.

Thank God for them all. •