An international humanitarian NGO, We Love U, has embarked on an extensive clean up campaign at Phoenix and Joe Slovo in Milnerton. The clean up forms part of efforts to rid areas of illegal dumping. Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation in the City of Cape Town, Zahid Badroodien, says the turnout of community members is encouraging.
Participants and community members say theirs is an unsightly environment where filth, dirt, old tyres and rubble, even from construction sites, seem to drown the once beautiful community. Brits van Zyl, who took part in the campaign, says they want to change that.
“I think there’s a lot of thrash that can accumulate quickly. A lot of people talk about the broken window effect, where if you see something broken or something dirty, don’t make it worse, because if something is clean and presentable it makes you proud and you want to keep it like that, and we hope the City of Cape Town can keep its name and be a clean city”, says van Zyl.
Jill Jacobs of We Love U says the campaign is also about creating a sustainable environment.
“We want to get everyone involved so that we get a sustainable future. You know, if the community see what is being carried out, they too might be moved to join the initiative so that they create a sustainable environment, a clean environment for everyone to live in. We have children that play around in the streets, if we litter around, that can cause harm tol them, and if you have a clean environment it also reduces crime”, says Jacobs.
Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation in the City of Cape Town, Zahid Badroodien, says campaigns like this could save the city millions…
“The City spends about R30million plus on cleaning up dumping from rubble. This is domestic dumping, in our parks, in our streets across the city, that’s the money that’s being wasted. Money that should be spent on something we can do to prevent. We know that when litter gets into our pumps, our pumps breakdown, it leads to an overflow and goes on to storm water and all that goes into our rivers”, says Badroodien.
The “We Love U” campaign says this is part of educating communities to take pride in their living areas for sustainable environments. More clean-ups are planned for other areas.
KZN Cleans up to boost tourism
In a bid to boost tourism and the local economy, residents of seaside towns on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, are rolling up their sleeves to help clean up their towns. Their initiative named Tidy Towns, focuses not only on maintenance of public amenities, but they also repair potholes and roads.
