Download PDFIn every township, there should be an official dumping site for people to throw away their trash. We need to keep our environment clean to avoid getting sick in the near future.
In Daveyton, there are no landfill sites where people can dump their trash which has created a very big problem as the residents have started to dump their trash all over around the township. Most of the affected places are very important to the community and include the library, stadium, schools, parks, taxi rank, etc. The residents use these places regularly but it is unclear why they chose to use these places as dumping sites.
Daveyton’s Mokoka Library serves a lot of residents who use it for doing research or for studying but since the grass surrounding the building is not being cut by the municipality residents living nearby started to dump their trash around this same library. This was before a park close to the library was built. People used an open space as a dumping site. Even after the place was cleaned and turned into a park people still continued dumping their rubbish on one side of the park. On another side of Daveyton, there is a school called Lerutle primary school. The people staying near the school have also created a dumping site next to the school. Officials and fellow community members have nothing is done about it.
These dumping sites create harmful gases such as carbon dioxide.
The residents have shared their views about the increasing dumping sites around Daveyton. These were the responses: “I’ve noticed the sudden change in the community. I am really concerned about our children as most of them already play near those dumping sites rummaging through the trash to get something to play with. A lot could go wrong and our kids may end up sick,” said Sibongile a 32-year-old woman residing in Gabon, a section in Daveyton.
“I think it’s the municipality’s fault for not creating a space for us to dump our trash and for letting people vandalise these places as they please. As a result, the municipality only cares about renovating its offices rather than attend[ing] to the issues that are faced by the community. They clearly see the dumping sites around the area but do nothing to solve the problem along with other problems they failed to solve like the issue of housing for residents who live in the Gabon section”
“The community should be the one to take responsibility to clean up the places and find a better place to dump the trash outside the public’s eye. This dumping problem is not only affecting our kids but also businesses at the taxi rank, you can’t even purchase anything from the street vendors as the foul smell makes it impossible to stay for a long time in that space.”
The community has given its views. Others feel like they don’t need to intervene and others feel like they need to intervene at the end of the day the issue needs to be resolved.
This article was submitted on 18 January 2023. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
