The Gauteng Department of Health and the City of Johannesburg called on Johannesburg residents to heed the call to assist with the clean-up of areas within Johannesburg and to make use of designated garden sites and landfills – particularly as a failure to do so may increase health risks presented by the ongoing Pikitup strike.
Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau said all the City’s seven regions are currently experiencing waste overflows, which pose health risks for the residents of Johannesburg. This as ongoing efforts by the City are being frustrated by strikers who have been intimidating non-striking workers and the public.
Also read Clean up your communities, Pikitup is letting us down – Johannesburg Mayor
Street collection points are fast-becoming illegal dump sites while services in some areas have had to be grounded due to intimidation and safety concerns. However, the City has begun deploying resources in the affected areas to restore services.
Tau said the City had already begun intensifying efforts to contain health risks through the identification of areas which fall under the high-risk category for urgent attention in collaboration with residents and the private sector.
He said, “These are the areas that are developing health hazards due to illegal dumping near trading facilities, public spaces and recreational facilities. The City has prioritised deployment of extra resources in densely populated areas which are at the highest risk [which] include Ivory Park, Diepsloot and Alexandra.”
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Department of Health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, has called on Johannesburg residents to heed the call to assist with the clean-up and said the increase in food and water-borne diseases are some of the threats which now exist in the current environment in Johannesburg.
Mahlangu said, “Children foraging in the rubbish could also contract these through contact with mucus and phlegm, which contains the bacterium responsible for pulmonary TB and other diseases of the respiratory tract. This is why citizens need to join forces with the City in its Bold Clean-up Campaign.”
The waste management services have since been classified as an essential service as a result of the prolonged illegal strike. Meanwhile, the MEC’s call comes amidst concerns about rodents, which assist in the transmission of diseases that include leptospirosis and the plague. Rats are also known to thrive and multiply in mounting rubbish heaps.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), which conducts routine surveillance programmes across the country, recently found a positive antibody showing previous plague infection in one of the rats it tested recently in Johannesburg, but there was no evidence of the disease being active. NICD chief executive officer, Lucille Blumberg, said that this was no cause for public alarm, and emphasised that it was important to restore waste collection and management services in Johannesburg.
The City has already established a joint operations centre to identify and prioritise hotspots for attention. The operations centre also manages public queries and mobilises resources in collaboration with the City’s other entities and the private sector through a new 24/7 hotline.
The hotline can also be used by residents to call for a waste pick-up truck or request cleaning tools and protective gear.
Details: 011 286 6009.
