RIVERS Church Durban North has taken an active stance against the rising tide of illegal dumping at the intersection of Malacca Road and Ryde Place.

While illegal dumping in the area has been a longstanding issue, there has been an increase of the space used by illegal dumpers edging outwards towards the forest and sideways edging closer to the church’s property.

Illegal dumpers take advantage of spaces cleared after clean-ups and dump everything from building rubble to car parts to scrap and garden refuse, all within 50m of a municipal garden refuse centre.

One of the pastors at Rivers Church, Gordon Naidoo, said the church cleans up every Friday at its own cost.

Also read: Illegal dumping on Malacca Road worsens

“Steadily the dumping ground has grown wider and it has begun moving closer to our fence line. To try and keep it at bay we’ve initiated clean-ups every Friday where we can transport several truckloads worth of rubbish to an actual landfill site. The frustrating part is once the area is clean, by Friday evening and certainly into the weekend illegal dumping continues unabated.

“Conversely, if we didn’t do anything the problem would be much worse. Cleansing and Solid Waste also do periodic clean-ups every couple of months. The Glen An-Hills Neighbourhood Watch and community members have also tried to stop illegal dumping when they can. Our members clean up every day within the church property because so much of the waste gets blown by the wind into our fenceline. Our message to those dumping is you wouldn’t do this on your doorstep, so why do it on the doorstep of others,” he said.

Naidoo said they had also engaged with the ward councillor.

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