Rubbish removed from Duck Pond after TotT’s queries

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Recently, Talk of the Town staff member Adele Steck took photos of the litter polluting the Duck Pond in Port Alfred, showing an assortment of plastic and even tyres discarded in the water closest to the parking lot next to the Anchorage Mall.

Steck said while driving along Southwell Road she had noticed litter scattered over the wetland over the course of several weeks and came across the accumulated filth on a closer inspection.

Encountering two municipal workers picking up litter around the Duck Pond on Sunday afternoon of May 9, Steck pointed it out to them, while understanding they did not have the correct gear to retrieve the rubbish from the water at the time.

She urged them to ask their supervisor for the equipment required to remove the rubbish.

The municipal cleaners blamed taxi drivers for dumping the tyres in the water to avoid the legal way of disposing of used tyres.

“It makes me angry. It’s not like municipal cleaners don’t see this – they see it and use no initiative to clean the area other than picking up bits and pieces of litter on the bank around the pond,” Steck said.

“Filth attracts filth. One piece of rubbish is thrown in there, and then another and it just grows and nothing gets done about it.”

While visiting the area, TotT also came across two men urinating into the water.

“This also happens because people don’t care – just like the wall next to the taxi rank,” Steck said.

TotT asked municipal spokesperson Cecil Mbolekwa for comment on the pollution and the assertion by the municipal workers that tyres had been dumped there by taxi drivers.

Mbolekwa has not responded, but when Steck went to check the area just hours after TotT’s queries were sent, she was happy to report the rubbish had been removed.

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