SIMONE SAMUELS
A potential outbreak of communicable diseases was averted when striking municipal workers returned to work at the weekend and began the massive clean-up of refuse piling up alongside Durban roads.
This is according Dr Ayo Olowolagba, deputy head of the municipality’s communicable diseases support unit, who was speaking to the Daily News in the wake of a two-week municipal strike being called off at the weekend.
The refuse had been steadily growing on suburban pavements and outside the municipal dump, which last week had rubbish strewn outside its gates.
Robert Abbu, the deputy head of strategic and new developments, said an average of 6 000 tons of refuse is collected daily, which amounts to about 60 000 tons of refuse accumulated during the 14-day strike.
Olowolagba said the city was lucky that cleaners had returned to duty before high temperatures sped up decomposition and torrential rains washed the contaminated refuse into the water supply and drainage system.
Despite clean-up efforts by casual workers during the strike, returning workers would be facing hefty amounts of overtime to deal with the refuse backlogged during the two weeks, said Raymond Rampersad, the head of cleansing and solid waste.
Rampersad said workers had been assigned to deal with the build-up in priority areas such as the city centre and high-volume roads. Dump sites would take about a week to be cleared and normal refuse collections would resume today.
While a government notice in 1998 said refuse would only become a cause for concern after 14 days, Rampersad said in his experience high-organic and meat products became a problem.
Olowolagba agreed, saying the different types of domestic refuse would become a problem immediately because of its type of composition. Flies would feed on decomposed matter and carry around the bacteria, causing diarrhoea and diseases, he said.
Olowolagba, however, said since city cleaners had been working “day and night” there was no longer a cause for concern about outbreaks and any communicable diseases.