22 Mar 2017

While most of communities still look up to the government to take responsibility of their environmental cleanliness, others feel challenged to come up with own viable ways that would improve and encourage them to keep their surroundings clean.

The spirit of keeping the environment clean in Semitwe started back in the days and it is not only preached but it is also practiced with much enthusiasm amongst the residents.

With the introduction of the ipelegeng programme, it also became relatively easy to maintain the standard and cleanliness of the village.

Residents engaged under the programme are often sent to different areas of the village with the intention to share responsibilities that would lead to this much desired cleanliness.

The Village Health Committee (VHC) is tasked with spearheading environmental health related matters such as educating residents on safe ways of refuse disposal, creating awareness on implications caused by an unclean environment and several others.

Semitwe VHC chairperson, Ms Hahezee Masalila noted that they had established an understanding to work closely with other Village Extension Teams (VETs) so as to share ideas and responsibilities towards cleaning up the village environment.

“We are working collectively with VETs and the community at large to encourage safe ways of refuse disposal through the limited resources we have,” she said.

Ms Masalila indicated that all the refuse is collected by the Tutume sub-council environmental health officials twice a month.

One interesting thing is that all capable residents always took part in efforts to maintain this cleanliness status.

“This is a joint matter and every capable individual gets to participate either through ipelegeng programme whereby villagers get engaged on rotational basis. We also have house to house campaign so as to encourage those lagging behind in cleaning their homesteads surroundings,” she said.

Efforts to keep Semitwe clean has not gone unnoticed as the village has maintained first position during the clean-up campaign competitions held annually at district and national level since 2013 to date.

With the cash prize amounting to P1 500 and P3 500 won at district and national levels respectively, the committee used these funds to design and mount signboards so as to enhance the environmental cleanness of the village.

Ms Masalila further indicated that taking issues of environmental cleanliness to the public has assisted in addressing challenges of public indecency such as relieving oneself anywhere, which often cropped  up at shebeens.

“We used to have challenges of some shebeens, which operated in homesteads with dilapidated toilets and this situation made people who frequented such places to use the environment in an unacceptable way,” she said.

She said they had so far sensitised shebeen owners about the health hazards imposed by this behavior, adding also that challenges of livestock roaming around the village causing destruction was closely monitored.

Meanwhile, Ms Masalila highlighted that they were sometimes faced with challenges of shortage of refuse bags and gloves due to the late delivery by the concerned officials.

However, she said the VHC members were working round the clock to see how possible they could tackle these challenges.

Besides playing a leading role on environmental health matters, Semitwe residents also have a strong belief in the spirit of volunteerism.

The community is actively involved in developmental activities that contribute immensely to the growth of the village.

Kgosi Batisane Joseph of Semitwe noted that some developments that were done through voluntary include a storeroom, which is currently used as a kgotla office. ENDS