DURBAN Solid Waste has its staff in Pinetown offices responsible for investigating illegal dumping.
I suggest they are achieving nothing. How many fines have they dished out this year I wonder?
Dumping on vacant land, in the case of the photo above, vacant state land on Pine Street in Southern Pinetown as well as along some roads such as Stockville Road, is of such serious proportions now that one would believe there are no official waste disposal facilities at all.
I would like to suggest that a team of unemployed youngsters be taken on to be paid out of the Expanded Public Works Votes, issued with cellphones with camera features and deployed day and night to catch illegal dumper vehicles in the act.
The taxi industry’s drivers also must be targeted for emptying taxi passengers’ waste onto the sidewalks wherever the driver chooses.
Unless some out-of-the-box solutions are forthcoming, the current staff might as well join the unemployed ranks for what good they have been able to achieve.
The pathetic notices they erect when they are dragged out to problems by a complaining ratepayer soon become smashed, are ignored and have no effect whatsoever. Dumping goes on right underneath such warning notices.
Perhaps the cost at landfill sites is too high or maybe people just do not know about recycling glass and plastic.
Something drastic has to be done and soon or ratepaying residents will be justified in seeking rates reductions or class law suits against the council for negligence leading to property value declines or even taking direct action themselves against illegal dumping vehicle drivers.
John Davison
Pinetown
