*The residents of Snake Park complain about the waste that is being dumped on the open fields and next to public areas which causes a health crisis.
Daniel Mkhwanazi
The issue of waste dumping or pollution of the land is one of the known environmental injustices that occur mostly in our communities and affect our ecosystem. Many may ignore this but somehow it does severely on health and mostly climate change. So, I went on to investigate this social and environmental issue that has been raised.
One of the Residents who is affected by this issue is a lady called Fikile, a 37-year-old female who resides next to the open field near the Thulani Secondary School, Block 5. She usually complains about the residents who frequently throw waste just front of her household and sometimes people just come with their trash bin to offload their waste, yet this causes her to be triggered by this issue of people randomly coming to throw their waste while it leaves a terrible smell and sometimes, they burn up unknown waste then they leave it behind while it burns. She said they are left off with carbon dioxide and it aggravates her so much in a way that sometimes she has severe random coughs, but she is ignorant about consulting the at the local health facility she said.
Another resident of Snake Park who is also affected by this issue of waste is Mr. Mahloko, a 45-year-old male who is been residing in an informal settlement just at the outline of Block 5 for over 10 years and has been experiencing this kind of issue and he went on and said since I have been residing here many people just dump their trash on the outline just nearby where I reside because there is an open field right across where I built my shack and the other neighbors. I could say that we are experiencing this because we do not have resources such as waste bins and this results in some of the residents who reside around me throwing out waste in that open field. Sometimes the Waste Pickers do not pick up due the trash bins, so this also causes the waste to be dumped just near where we live, and we are concerned more about our health and the environment.
As this is the problematic factor the residents of Snake Park should speak with the Community Working People and the Piki up company to ensure that they do regular cleaning around the community when they find waste and polluted areas, which causes health problems and other environmental factors such as pollution.
