Cleaning our streets and suburbs must be our contribution in averting climate change catastrophe

By Marimuthu Subramoney
(aka Subry Govender)



Durban is being spruced up once again. This time it is to ensure that the city and its surrounding areas look neat and tidy when delegates from around the world descend for the Cop17 Climate conference in three weeks time.

Municipal workers and contractors are busy along the coast - especially in and around the city, along the M4 towards Umhlanga, Umdloti, Umhlali, Ballito and other areas on the North Coast. A similar situation prevails on the south coast.

What a pleasing scene to see our highways, coastal roads and suburbs like Umhlanga Rocks clean and tidy?

But what about areas like Tongaat, Verulam, Phoenix, Ottawa, Waterloo, Hambanathi, Gwala's Farm, Umbhayi, Sea Tides, and La Mercy. Municipal workers are seen picking up litter and other garbage but whether they do their jobs properly is another matter altogether.

And the tragedy that has become part of our daily lives is that the residents of our different suburbs and those who descend on towns like Tongaat, Verulam and Shakaskraal don't have or have very little pride in the environment. We tend to throw our rubbish everywhere without any concern whatsoever.

Passengers in motor vehicles and taxis also throw beer cans, coke tins, alcohol containers, empty chips packets and other wrappings into the streets and on the roads. They too have very little appreciation of the environment.

Then we have huge industries that pollute our atmosphere. The people of the south Durban region will attest to the dangers of this pollution to the environment.

We also have people who visit our beaches for a day out also throwing their left overs without any thought of the environmental damage they cause.

Organisations such as the Keep Tongaat Beautiful Association and its Verulam equivalent try to promote the protection of the environment but it seems they are fighting a losing battle.

It's hoped that all the tamasha during the Cop 17 climate conference will generate some interest in us to clean and protect our environment.

The Minister of International Relations, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, in preparing for the Durban conference has told role players around the world that protecting the environment was one of the ways in which climatic change could be tackled.

It's hoped that the Minister and her Government have put in place plans to educate and mobilise our people about the catastrophic impacts of climate change and why it's necessary for us to ensure that our suburbs, streets, CBDs and roads are free of litter, rubbish and other thrash.

It's only through educational measures that we will be able to protect our environment and avert the certain climate change catastrophe.

If we want to save Tomorrow for our children then we must start Today.