The most important item in the South right now is the resolution of the dump at Wemmer Pan.
Correct recycling needs to be undertaken urgently. We can no longer live with all the plastic waste which is not degradable and is found everywhere leaking all sorts of muck and disease. There are thousands of wild birds on the dump, eating everything they can, most of it rotten. The amount of bacteria there must be diabolical. The flu is spread to domestic birds via bird faeces and secretions from their noses, mouths and eyes, and they in turn spread it wherever they go.
H5N1 is the most common form of bird flu and kills 60 per cent of those infected. Not many people have died worldwide, but with Johannesburg residents living so close to the dump there is a very good chance of people becoming infected, especially when you remember that many residents live close to or below the bread line and are therefore susceptible to sickness and disease.
Experts in the field of avian flu are extremely concerned that in such cases a human pandemic can break out, which will destroy vast numbers of the affected population.
The following is a list of illnesses caused by bird flu: pneumonia, collapsed lungs, respiratory failure, kidney malfunction and heart problems.
None of these are minor illnesses that can just be shrugged off, so I believe this is a time bomb waiting to explode.
Ian
