Africa-Press – Botswana. Environment upkeep remains a serious challenge within the North West District Council as there is more waste that gets indiscriminately disposed of, especially on the outskirts of Maun.
The council chairperson, Mr Itumeleng Kelebetseng confirmed in an interview following a sporadic tour of some waste hotspots around Maun recently, noting that the district was indeed experiencing a surge in waste production, especially in Maun and its outskirts. The areas visited included Gxhabara, Moeti and Disana, among others, and the chairperson said that the litter in those areas came from the community and was disposed of at odd hours, which showed that perpetrators knew that it was wrong.
Members of the community, he said, targeted borrow pits to throw rubbish in, which could be toxic for both humans and wildlife. Poor waste management, he said, was an eyesore and a significant problem with various negative consequences, adding that it created unpleasant and unhealthy environments impacting both aesthetics and public health.
“Poor waste management in our district is not just an eyesore, it’s a serious environmental disaster that affects us all and I appeal to the community at large and all stakeholders to embrace change and ensure that all waste is disposed of in the right way and in the right places,” said Mr Kelebetseng.
While the council is actively working on improving waste management practices, he said their efforts were frustrated by some people who cared less about proper disposal of waste. The chairperson said Maun was a tourism destination, hence all stakeholders, including members of the communities, should join forces with the council to promote cleanliness.
To rectify the situation, he also vowed to engage the council secretary to mobilise some resources such as machinery to rehabilitate the affected areas as well as to plead with all councillors and village development committees to embark on clean-up initiatives and make their wards and villages better places to live in and visit.
“We are aiming to transform our district into a green city and poor waste management can significantly affect our ability to achieve our dream of become a green city,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr Kelebetseng appreciated that waste management was an expensive undertaking if the community was not doing their part and shared that for the financial year 2025/26, the council had reserved the funds amounting to P7.8 million for waste management.
Most households, he said, did not have refuse bins to hold their waste for collection, adding that for the past two months, the Department of Environmental Health had been doing evening announcements to notify the public of the anomaly and would, in August, start issuing individual notices to households to encourage them to possess refuse bins.
“To achieve a cleaner Maun, it has to start from individual households, hence there is a need to have refuse bins as a start and the council to have skip containers for those that have rubbish hips in their backyards to clear them at a flat rate of P100 rather than burning waste, which is against the law,” he said.
Members of the community were also encouraged to utilise the landfill, which receives most of the waste generated for a minimal fee. Mr Kelebetseng said they should understand that cleanliness started from home to the outside environment, therefore, lack of bins in households could lead to indiscriminate littering or smuggling out of litter to street sides. The council on its own, he said, was not going to be able to keep up with clearing the indiscriminately disposed of waste, therefore, everyone was encouraged to do own policing such that perpetrators were nabbed.
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