WASHINGTON — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Monday a weeklong effort to identify the many broken streetlights in the District, and unveiled a new way to report such outages.

“We have 70,000 streetlights in the District and too many of them do not work,” Bowser said in a statement. “By fixing streetlights, we can make District streets safer, stronger and brighter.”

After making the announcement, teams of workers began an inventory of broken streetlights, the statement said.

Bowser also announced the launch of Text to DC311, which allows residents to report broken streetlights from their mobile phones. To report a broken streetlight, text the words “street light” to DC311 (32311). The system will ask a series of follow-up questions about the light.

Residents also can report broken streetlights online at 311.dc.gov, through the DC311 mobile app, via Twitter and to live agents at the 311 call center. They can already report other problems, involving services such as trash collection and parking meter service, through Text to 311.