by Afika Ndlela 20 MAY 2022
Manzomthombo High School is located adjacent to the Kuils River Canal which runs through the informal settlement of Burundi. The Kuils River starts at its source in Durbanville, passes through Kuils River, Mfuleni, Khayelitsha to the mouth of Macassar beach, in which it forms an estuary . An estuary is a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Estuaries, and their surrounding lands, are places of transition from land to sea.
The environmental club at Manzomthombo submitted a year plan submitting all the environmental activities they wish to do in 2022, part of those plans is to clean up their school premises and around the school.
The school is greatly affected by the environmental pollution that is around their school. The photograph below shows the litter and rubble that is dumped next to the school. The learners want to exercise their right to have a clean environment that is not harmful to their health, however, this is quite difficult to do as they have little control over the dumping that happens next to their school. The clean-up is an initiative to get the learners and the residents around the school to stop and prevent the dumping by the school.
“Imagine having to skip and jump over filth, used nappies, dead dogs, and rats on your way to school, only to have the stench of all this dumping follow you into class, it is quite disturbing. But I guess we have gotten used to it by now because it is a norm for us” said Asemahle, a learner at the school.
The learners expressed their distress about having to adapt to such harsh conditions. They stated that they are aware that the clean-up is a drop in the ocean because it is not sustainable nor will it prevent the dumping, but they are hopeful that people will eventually take the matter seriously and work together to make sure the learners have a clean school environment, inside and outside the school premises.
The City of Cape Town municipality sponsors blue bags for community clean-ups and sends a truck to pick up the garbage. A form signed by the local ward councillor and the school must be signed and sent to the Solid Waste department in order for them to issue out the blue bags. There were all kinds of litter, glass, nappies, rubble, plastics, paper, and skulls of animals, as shown in the photograph here.
The learners want the City of Cape Town to assist them in alleviating the dumping issue by putting a skip so that people can throw their litter in the skip and not around the school. They believe that the reason why most people dump is that service delivery in the surrounding areas is not reliable as the municipal waste truck does not come by at times or comes very late. Therefore, the residents have no choice but to dump their waste at the next available empty space.
Along the canal, on either side, there are small-scale commercial livestock farmers who have very limited space for their animals to graze, the animals drink from the canal and also defecate in the canal. The stench that comes from all this is quite overwhelming for the learners, especially during the summer seasons. The learners are often forced to close the classroom windows to try and prevent the smell from entering but that is a futile exercise as the stench is too strong.
A sustainable solution is urgent to alleviate the dumping of waste in the community, as well as create environmental awareness education. This is to build community awareness about dumping habits and encourage environmental awareness. There is a need for a workable partnership between the community and local government so that the people (and animals) can have access to quality air, safe water, and a healthy environment.
Our way forward:
· We will work towards reviving the Kuils River Catchment Management Forum because it is the organisational platform that is a forum for all those impacted in different ways along the river to voice their concerns and collaborate to come up with sustainable solutions for all.
· Assess laying an official complaint with the Solid Waste and Environmental Health departments about the litter and health risks posed by the dumping by the school. We hope this will activate the local government departments responsible for providing a clean environment for all, working with communities to focus on problems, and focusing on sustainable solutions to prevent or minimize dumping.
