23 Jun 2014

Residents of Zwenshambe and Letsholathebe have raised concerns over uncollected waste in their refuse bins.

In an interview recently, Letsholathebe Village Development Committee vice chairman, Ms Tumelo Jotia stated that the uncollected refuse in their village caused land pollution since dogs tore refuse bags apart, scattering waste all over the surroundings and making the village even dirtier.

She stated that even though Ipelegeng workers tried by all means to keep their villages clean, this became a drawback as the same dirt they had collected re-scattered around the village again especially papers since the cages were not covered.

Another Letsholathebe resident, Ms Mercy Baaname stated that if not collected soon, some of the waste would decay and produce bad odour that will be harmful to their respiratory and health in general, and thus causing diseases such as tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases, as they will inhale the bad air from the waste.

Ms Banabotlhe Masala of Zwenshambe village stated that they have informed the environmental health office about the situation they are facing in their area.

She indicated that this is bad for their health since this waste is made up of female sanitary towels, pampers, condoms and other detrimental waste that when blown by wind can be harmful to both their lives and animals.

North East District council environmental health superintendent, Mr Mopati Tapiso indicated that his office is aware of the problem and that their three refuse compactor trucks have had mechanical faults since the past rainy season.

He added that they had a meeting with council management where they discussed coming up with ways of dealing with the situation before it worsened and that they recently managed to service only one compactor truck which will go for testing by next week.

He stated that they had a challenge in collecting all their 38 refuse cages but they are working on the situation.

He further added that so far they have managed to outsource one open truck to collect the waste and for now they have been able to collect in about five villages and for 86 per cent of their commercial clients.

Mr Tapiso explained that the unavailability of compact trucks has disturbed their programme because they usually collect waste about twice in a month.

Mr Tapiso also explained that it is costly to engage private collectors since they charge about P950 000 00 for a single collection in all the 38 cages.

Mr Tapiso said that in future they will liaise with transport to at least license more open trucks in case they come across situations like this. He promised that they will bring back the situation back to normal before the end of June. Ends