Residents who stay in the area of Chiawelo in Khutsong complain that the Merafong City Local Municipality is not attending to rubbish issues.

A huge rubbish heap has been developing next to the Chiawelo water tower for years.

This tower was once one of Khutsong’s water storage facilities but has fallen out of use due to ground stability issues during the past decade.

According to concerned residents, many people throw their rubbish at the site.

Some of the rubbish is thrown there by residents of the adjacent informal housing area, as the municipality does not remove their rubbish at all.

The biggest problem is, however, caused by people who dump building rubble at the site.

“This comes from the formal houses.

No one who lives in a shack will throw away pieces of concrete. Not even people who do recycling can do anything with this,” said one of the residents.

He pleaded for the municipality to come and clean the rubbish at this site, as they are currently doing in other areas such as Kokosi.

What makes the rubbish in this area an even bigger problem, is that there are several people with informal food stalls close by.

The Herald took the issues to the Merafong City Local Municipality’s marketing and communications manager, Temba Fezani, but received no feedback by printing time.