City of Mbombela appeals to residents to keep streams clean
The City of Mbombela has urged the public to report acts of littering to the City’s call centre.
The City of Mbombela (CoM) recently responded to concerned residents following reports of people living in rubbish-laden drainage pipes in the area.
The CoM spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, acknowledged that there is a large amount of pollution in the streams in and around White River and that there were several people who appear to be homeless and living near a storm water drain near the town centre.
Ngala said the stream in question starts at Hoërskool Rob Ferreira and flows into a stilling dam next to Tom Lawrence Street.
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“It then crosses over Tom Lawrence and goes towards the intersection of Norwin and William Lynn streets and dissipates into a larger stream across from Volkswagen (Palm Motors),” he said.
“We have recently worked on the stream above Norwin Street where we lengthened the gabion structure (stone wall).
“Our Norwin and William Lynn streets in White River started cleaning storm water drains on August 30 from Danie Joubert Street towards Theo Kleynhans Street. On September 8 our team cleaned the stream and opened the pipe at the intersection of Norwin and William Lynn streets. This specific storm water drain is a place where homeless people are staying,” he said.
Ngala said the team had returned on Monday September 13, and found it to be dirty once more.
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“We appeal to citizens to stop littering as this has adverse consequences on the general cleanliness of our City and leads to these blockages that will ultimately impact negatively on the efficacy of our drainage systems but more importantly, affect the environment,” said Ngala.
“We further urge our residents to report acts of littering to the City’s call centre so that perpetrators can be exposed. The call centre details are customercare@mbombela.gov.za or 013 759 9301/2/3/5/6/7/8.”
He added that the matter of people, who are homeless, staying in the area is being referred to Department of Social Development for possible intervention as CoM does not have safe houses.
