Illegal waste dumping concerns Ikageng residents

Illegal waste dumping is a big problem in Ikageng, Potchefstroom, with waste piling up in certain areas and having a negative impact on the environment and residents.

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She has a problem with people who dump their waste in front of the Ikageng Stadium, said Bontle Motsumi (21), a job hunter and resident of Ikageng.

“The garbage collectors from the Tlokwe Municipality collect garbage once a week in every block in Ikageng. The municipality is trying its best to keep Ikageng clean by providing garbage services to collect waste weekly.  But the Ikageng community is ignorant by dumping their waste in public. It can cause diseases that can affect our health as community members,” she said.

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William Maphosa, communication manager at JB Marks Local Municipality, said the municipality does its best to provide a healthy and clean living environment in which communities can live and work, within the limits of its budget.

Maphosa said maintaining a clean environment requires active participation and cooperation of all role players – the municipality, civil society and community members.

The municipality has undertaken numerous cleaning and educational campaigns and spent a lot of resources in money and personnel hours to try and attack the evils of grimy and dirty environments in their municipal area, caused by illegal dumping and littering, according to Maphosa.

He said, however, it often takes fewer than two days to find the same illegal dumps mushrooming again after they had been removed. “It should be stated though, that the majority of community members are law abiding citizens who value cleanliness and healthy living surroundings. It is just a few irresponsible people who resort to this unseemly behavior,” he said.

The worst part is that this type of behavior is often extended to destroy community infrastructure. Wayward people go out of their way to throw foreign objects such as hard boards and even stones into the sewer system, blocking pipes, causing spillages that are a health hazard to the community, Maphosa said.

“Nevertheless, the municipality will continue to explore ways of engaging all role players to forge working partnerships and find ways of addressing the scourge of environmental harm,” he said.

According to section 24 of the Constitution, everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health nor well-being. In addition, people have the rights to have an environment protected for the benefit of the present and future generations through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation.

Lehlohonolo Moremi (28), a LLB final-year student at North-West University (NWU) and an Ikageng resident, said the task of keeping Ikageng clean and healthy is for both the local municipality and the community members at large.

“Illegal waste disposal makes a community untidy, unsanitary and impossible to live in once it starts stinking, creating a great risk for the personal health of community members, especially now that we are facing a global pandemic of Covid-19, which requires excessive cleanliness,” Moremi said.

“This type of waste disposal in communities is usually left to pile up and thereafter it gets burned. The smoke from burning this waste results in severe respiratory defects for community members with illnesses such as asthma, lung cancer and many more other illnesses,” Moremi said.

“Furthermore, it creates a dangerous health hazard for children as many of them go to such dumps to pick up stuff which they use to play with, not knowing the impact this could have on their health in the future,” Moremi said.

Moremi said in order to prevent waste dumping in the community, the municipality should impose fines when and if it catches someone throwing away their waste in prohibited places, or hire more people to help keep the community clean.

Pappy Blom (39), a supply chain worker and Ikageng resident, said “I feel bad about waste dumping because I remember a few years ago Ikageng was rated as one of the cleanest townships in the North-West Province.”

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The illegal waste dumping affects us in the community in a very bad way because of the terrible smell. “I would like people in the community to report illegal waste dumping and to try to keep the community clean,” Blom said.

Kamogelo Bakae (23), a LLB final year student at the North-West University (NWU) and Ikageng resident, said land pollution is really dangerous because children in the community play around and they can easily become ill.

“We should be responsible community members of Ikageng and we need to understand how dangerous it is to dump waste in public. As community members we need to educate ourselves by reading about the effects of waste dumping and we need to pick up our own waste and try to keep our community clean,” Bakae said.