‘Punish people throwing garbage in drainages’

SANFROSSA MANYINDA writes

RESIDENTS of Lusaka have called on the Lusaka City Council (LCC) to prosecute people that are in a habit of throwing garbage in drainages.
The residents said that it was saddening to see how drainage systems had been turned into garbage sites by some irresponsible people in the city.

One concerned resident Jemimah Lukonde, complained that people ought to know that the act did nothing good to society but that only made the city dirty and invited diseases.
Ms. Lukonde said that the same people that littered and blocked the drainages were the ones who complained to the local authority to unblock them when the rains started.
“They complain day and night that the council does not do its job of clearing garbage when they are the ones that deliberately cause problems. They block the drainages forgetting that when the rains come they will be the ones that will have their houses in the middle of floods,” she said.
She wondered the levels of ignorance some people had that made them dump garbage in the night and thinking that they were clever by doing so.
She said that it was high time people realised that they were all the eyes of the council that could not be to see those throwing garbage in the drainage systems.
Another resident Moses Muwongo said blocking drainages brought about diseases such as cholera.
He further called on the council to seriously punish whoever found throwing garbage in the drainages wanting so that they could serve as examples to those that may want to do the same in future.

And the local authority has warned of stern action against people that would be found breaking the law in that manner.
LCC Public Relations Manager George Sichimba said that the authority would not tolerate anyone be found littering drainages.
“This issue of keeping the city dirty on purpose just because there are people to clean up will not help anyone at all. People must help us so that we help them,” Mr. Sichimba said.