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The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has appointed additional workers to help clean up the beaches following the commencement of the New Year.
Starting on Monday, January 2, 2023, additional staff have been placed across the metro’s beaches to speed up the work, while other workers have been placed in the Central Business District, and taxi ranks.
Nelson Mandela Bay MMC for Public Health, Thsonono Buyeye, said that their teams start working daily from as early as 04:00 and have been cleaning beaches that include Wells Estate, New Brighton Beach, Bluewater Bay and all the beaches in Summerstrand.
“Our beaches are still full of bathers and people are still enjoying the holidays. This means that our intensified waste management plan will run until the end of January. Our teams start working at 04:00 and finish at 19:00 when people have left the beaches,” he said.
Buyeye added that the metro encourages the recycling of bottles by recyclers during this time.
“We have seen a number of residents who take part in recycling projects using this time to collect their recyclables. There are also companies that go around our beaches looking specifically for bottles and that is something that we encourage as part of our cleaning and greening campaign to divert some waste from our landfill sites.
“Most importantly, we want everyone to enjoy clean beaches and Central Business District areas. There is certainly no good health in living in dirty spaces. Untidy spaces spoil the fun. So, we plead with everyone to not litter; they must use the available bins in these public spaces. That way we can keep our spaces clean and in a healthy state fit for a city that wants to attract visitors during the festive season.”
He explained that normal domestic refuse collection continues as per the schedules and residents are encouraged to take out their refuse to avoid waste piling up on the streets.
Buyeye also condemned the act of illegal dumping that took place outside the Kragga Kamma drop-off site recently.
“There is absolutely no reason why residents and business owners insist on dumping illegally outside the Kragga Kamma drop-off site. We communicated the dates when all our 18 drop-off sites would be closed and there was compliance in the other areas but that site continues to give us challenges and this needs behavioural change from community members.”
The municipality has since cleared the area.
