Illegal dumping remains a problem for Ikageng resident

A woman who moved to Ikageng from Cape Town says she is sick of seeing constant rubbish being dumped throughout the area.

“ Illegal dumping is an ongoing issue and I have witnessed the municipality and a few members of the community spend countless hours cleaning the sites but residents continue to dump,” Bianca Adams, lamented.
“ Residents should take note of how to improve their surroundings. Don’t they care how the place around them looks? Residents are issued a bin. But then they take on more people in their backyards without applying for more bins,” Adams added.

According to her, some ratepayers have between three or six people living in one yard and still only make use of one bin.
“When the bin is full, people sometimes go to any open space and dump it,” she explained.
Adams says she wishes people would realise that dumping on any public land is an offence. Residents often dump anything from dead animals to building materials.

“ What comes out of the drains are clothes, cutlery and other waste which cause blockages,” she said.
When previously asked about the vast number of dumping sites in Ikageng, acting municipal manager of communication Jeanette Tshite said, there are teams assigned from time to time with regard to clearing illegal dumping sites.  “A number of areas around Ikageng are cleared but unfortunately, the speed for accumulation of waste thereafter is way faster than our capacity to manage them,” she said.

“ The bulk of waste that was found at illegal spots was household waste that should be collected by municipal waste removal trucks during their routine of waste collection. It is very sad that some of our residents always find it convenient to use the pavements or open spaces to dump waste instead of using available municipal services of waste collection,” she added. Tshite indicated that the municipality is looking at sustainable solutions such as by-law enforcement to address this challenge.