City's new clean-up drive targets service lanes

02 June 2017

 

The City of Joburg’s Environmental Health Department and waste management entity Pikitup are to embark on a massive clean-up drive of service lanes in various parts of the inner city.

 

Environmental health, which is part of the City’s Health Department, has over the past few days been running a series of public education campaigns among inner city residents on waste management and the importance of maintaining a clean environment.

 

The campaigns started on Monday, 29 May at a service lane behind Caroline Street in Hillbrow, Region F.

 

Environmental Health’s Masego Sehloho said the City had identified areas that urgently needed attention.

 

Sehloho said many people had turned service lanes in the inner city into dumping sites. This, she added, created a health hazard.

 

“Living in dirty surroundings can cause illnesses. Such environments can also become breeding grounds for rodents. Rodents like places where they can easily get food and water,” she said.

 

Sehloho said it was for this reason that the City wanted to build a relationship with tenants living in buildings close to service lanes.

 

"We must join hands with them and work together to create a clean and safe environment.

 

“The City wants to create a clean city that is able to manage waste properly. As health practitioners it is our responsibility to engage residents and raise awareness among them about the importance of looking after the environment they live in,” Sehloho explained.

 

She said the City had a problem with tenants living in high-rise buildings who threw their waste through windows into the street.

 

Sehloho warned that after the clean-up campaign, service lanes would be closely monitored.

 

Elias Dumakude, the caretaker of Clearens Heights in Hillbrow said it was a disgrace to live in a dirty environment. “We should be ashamed. We come out of these buildings all dressed up but we fail to do a simple thing like putting a piece of paper in a rubbish bin," Dumakude said.

He said tenants of Clearens Heights who continued to throw waste out of their windows would be fined R500 per infringement. "This is not a time to point fingers but rather to right wrongs," he said.