Submitted by Councillor Elaine Rodway

Litter is ugly. That is an undeniable truth and it goes without saying that if your town is ravaged by litter carelessly dumped at the side the road, your town will become ugly. Many may recall that Vryheid was once considered among the names in the Cleanest City in KZN awards. That was approximately 20 years ago and it has never been mentioned in that regard since. Some might argue that the municipality is to blame for our town’s unkempt and messy state, as local government is tasked with matters pertaining to refuse removal and waste management. While that may be a fair point, one might also be compelled to dig a little deeper and consider that the root cause of this problem is far more complex.

If local government erects ‘NO DUMPING’ signs in certain areas and you dump your trash right next to one of those signs, who is really at fault? The mere fact that signs need to be erected to discourage people from contributing to the growing garbage crisis is, in itself, quite ridiculous. Common sense should prevail in these instances. Most people can grasp the concept of not dumping trash along the side of the road based on a simple understanding of the environmental and aesthetic impact, at the very least. It’s also worth noting, to those who may not be aware, that this behaviour is actually illegal. If you dump your trash on the side of the road, you are breaking the law. If you dump your trash right next to a ‘NO DUMPING’ sign, you are brazenly and arrogantly breaking the law and you might just benefit from some deep introspection on this issue.
Considering the challenges we are currently facing throughout AbaQulusi – such as ageing infrastructure, for instance, where funds can be better allocated – it seems fairly wasteful to be throwing money at costly exercises to clean up after those who insist on dumping illegally. As a community, we can play an active role in ridding our town of the dumping scourge that is polluting our environment by, firstly, not dumping illegally and, secondly, reporting those who do. As councillor of Ward 8, I encourage AbaQulusi Municipality to take a tougher stance on illegal dumping and impose hefty fines on offenders. I’d also like to see more bins throughout town and those bins being utilised for their intended purpose. I’m quite certain that most of us would be very proud to have Vryheid back on the list of cleanest towns in KZN again, so let’s do our part to make it happen. The road to a cleaner town is a two-way street.

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The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.