Cape Town - Refuse collection day at the Da Gama Park naval flats in Simon’s Town is like pay day for the baboons in the nearby mountains.
According to the flats’ cleaners, the baboons know tenants are careless about waste disposal, and that despite the padlocks provided, very few of the rubbish bins are locked.
“The problem is significantly exacerbated by the extremely poor and negligent waste management at the naval flats. Residents continue to dump waste and refuse bags on top of the bins despite the fact that there are several empty bins available for use,” said Ziggy Rode, a ranger with Human Wildlife Solutions, in her report for August.
A resident who has lived at one of the Da Gama flats for more than three years agreed with her.
“There are baboons here every day. The people don’t care. They just dump their rubbish on the bins.”
He said some tenants even threw their food waste out of the small windows from the upper floors.
When the Cape Argus visited the flats early one morning last week baboons had already arrived to forage through the bags. The situation is much the same at the Waterfall Barracks, where residents reportedly leave windows and doors open.
“This problem will persist unless strict measures are put in place to improve waste management,” said Rode. “Despite the numerous efforts made to advise residents by providing information on waste management, this has had little effect and severely hampers management efforts within Da Gama and Welcome Glen which the baboons still consider home.”
Julia Wood, manager of Cape Town’s biodiversity management: environmental resource management department said: “If baboons know that there is poor waste management or residents who purposely feed them, the baboons stake out homes near known poorly managed waste sites. Over a period of two weeks in August, one house was raided on three separate occasions by male baboons at about 8pm while the residents were in the house.”
She said these baboons also ran the risk of being injured by pellet guns, stoned by residents, attacked by dogs or run over by cars.
When baboons have easy access to sleep sites, such as the roof of the navy flats, they become residents.
“Baboons are not toilet-trained and defecate wherever they choose. Residents of the flats end up living next to and walking through baboons faeces daily. This is not healthy and is of huge concern to the city managers.”
The SA Navy indicated that it would respond to questions about waste management at its residences but had not done so after several days. - Cape Argus