By: Zethu Gweva
After the world was hit hard by the coronavirus Wandile Bidla from Mount Ayliff has volunteered to keep the streets of East London clean.
According to Bidla, the initiative was established on September 26 after COVID-19 hit the world. Bidla realised the importance of hygiene as he saw the city has a lot of refuse on the streets and could later cause diseases.
“I realized that it can affect us in the long run with diseases because street gutters are full of dirt and soil so water is not flowing freely and that can cause illness, water pollution so I realized that we as the community we owe it to ourselves to clean our spaces,” he said.
He added that it is not only the government’s responsibility to keep communities clean and healthy but also the resident’s responsibility.
Bidla said they do not have enough refuse bags, gloves, masks, sanitizers, spades, rakes, brooms, 500 ml water bottles and no refreshments for volunteers after cleaning, and the municipality solid waste department does not arrive on time to pick after they have cleaned.
“Our purpose is to make our streets and street gutters look clean and reduce water pollution and also reduce disease infections in our communities,” said Bidla.
The initiative has 30 volunteers and counting. Their target areas are Southernwood, Quigney, Ziphunzana, Mdantsane, Nompumelelo, Settlersway and many more. They clean once a month on Saturdays.
“The plan is to recruit as many more volunteers then capacitate them with the resources so they can recruit more and clean their respective areas and we will be reaching more areas faster,” he said.