Mayor implores community to join fight against illegal dumping
This is after a recent clean-up initiative that was led by the Department of Water and Sanitation, local NGO Soulbent Project and the City of Tshwane in Atteridgeville.
City of Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink has called on the community to help fight illegal dumping.
This follows a recent clean-up campaign.
The initiative was led by the Department of Water and Sanitation, local NGO Soulbent Project and the metro in Atteridgeville.
The joint effort between the organisations commended the residents who volunteered to clean up the Mogangwe River and provided relevant information to the local Atteridgeville community.
Volunteers were encouraged to protect and maintain wetlands, save and restore degraded wetlands and contribute to improving the environment.
Mashudu Makhado, the founder of Soulbent, said this initiative aims to engage with the community of Atteridgeville in promoting environmental awareness and pollution impacts.
“More than 200 community members and 47 officials, including members of the South African police service and metro police, attended the cleanup that we recently conducted,” he said.
MAYOR URGES COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO GET INVOLVED
Cilliers Brink urged other community members to be involved in such moments to help keep the city clean.
“It is appropriate to acknowledge that the City does not have enough landfill sites or waste stations,” Brink said.
“Not enough has been done to keep Tshwane’s streets clean, especially by law enforcement.”
He also added that it was imperative for the metro to provide the services and the city as well as NGOs should inculcate a cleaning culture within communities in Tshwane.
Gauteng DWS coordinator Oscar Tinyiko Bungeni suggested that government alone could not suffice.
“If the rest of the community is involved there is a 98.9% chance of keeping the province healthy,” he said.
“It is very unlikely the department and other relevant stakeholders could win the fight against illegal dumping that pollutes the environment without communities involved, we need to bring locals on board and that should be a priority,” he said.
The local NGO emphasised the importance of bringing the metro back to its former award-winning state.
The metro has urged Tshwane residents to partake in the next cleanup campaign to commemorate Mandela Day on July 18.
ALSO READ: Soulbent Project helps to curb water pollution
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