Imagine running a business in direct proximity to a maggot-infested heap of rotting garbage.
This nightmarish situation has become commonplace for a small group of businesses operating on Gutenberg Street, a problem reaching back as far as December 2013.
From this date, owners and staff said, municipal workers have blatantly ignored the growing piles of refuse.
Although the municipality has allegedly been approached on numerous occasions, some factory owners have resorted to shelling out for private transport to lug the refuse to the dump site. Others have simply refused to add to the stresses of running a business, leaving the trash to become a putrid mess.
The situation reached a revolting head during the past week, when one business owner described how maggots had begun to breed among products being prepared for transport to clients. Frustrated and exasperated, she decided to come forward with an official complaint. “I just don’t know what to do anymore,” she lamented. The landlord presiding over the factory hub said the main cause of the rancid mess was municipal workers never collecting the bags on time, despite businesses paying rates for this very service.
One suggestion was a larger skip, to prevent garbage lying on the ground. Responding on behalf of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, one of the factory owners said the municipality had since responded after the matter was raised yet again.
Further comment from the municipality was not received at the time of going to print.
