The Wau Town Municipal Council on Monday unveiled a garbage collection exercise in residential areas with huge rubbish piles.
The move follows the development of a strategy to keep the town hygienic and protect the residents from diseases and mosquitoes.
Wau Town Mayor Dasio William Taban told Radio Tamazuj Monday that the municipality had borrowed machinery from African Resources Corporation (ARC), a company involved in road construction, and local garbage collection companies to help move the huge heaps of garbage.
“We have a cleaning campaign in Wau is divided into five blocks. Last month I formed a committee led by the deputy mayor for lands to safeguard the cleanness of garbage in the town and other public areas. The committee identified areas with rubbish that residents are rampantly disposing on the roads, causing cholera and other diseases and breeding mosquitoes,” he said. “We are not only targeting the disposals but also trying to address the issue of potholes on the three internal main roads which are linking Wau north and Wau south. In the first stage, we focused on the whole of Wau Town, but today we started with Wau North because in the Negli Industrial Area.”
Mayor Taban added: “There is garbage for about 40 meters along the road which the residents have dumped and some of the waste has closed part of the road,”
He said that other areas that will be cleaned include the road leading to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church o near the railway station, the mosque, and the area near the customary court.
“We know that most of the rubbish is generated by the residents who give homeless children SSP 500 to carry their garbage to nearby roads and we are all aware of this and it is not good,” Taban said. “We urge the people in Wau Town not to dispose of waste along the roads.”
According to the official, the town has garbage collection companies. Still, the residents do not want to pay the fees for collecting waste and the municipality voluntarily takes responsibility for public cleaning.
Wau Town residents welcomed the move, describing it as a good gesture in promoting hygiene within the community. Alor Deng Kor, a resident, said the exercise will leave the town healthier and control the rampant infection.
“This cleaning will help the community and keep the environment clean and get rid of accumulated piles of waste which is causing the spread of diseases,” he said. “At some point, this waste will be washed by rainwater into the river and we will drink the water and this is dangerous to human health. So, we support the idea of the cleaning.”
Kor advised the mayor to seek support from the health partners operating in the state, including the World Health Organization, IOM, Save the Children, and other organizations to support the campaign with containers that can be deployed in residential areas and along the roads for garbage collection.
Another resident, Kon Biama, said the initiative will improve the road conditions within the town.
“The general cleaning is very important because it saves the environment within the town because, during this rainy season, there are a lot of sicknesses affecting citizens. So, such cleaning will enable them to get clean drinking water,” said Biama. “I encourage all groups within Wau Town to embrace the same example and to clean their respective areas.”