Littering laws

Satish Nakched, Suva

The rubbish problem is escalating and members of the public are intentionally and recklessly dumping refuse and other obsolete materials along the roadside without fear of prosecution.

The fact is that municipalities do not have an effective enforcement strategy and do not work with the ratepayers to report such abuse.

The piles of rubbish on our roadsides seem to be a permanent feature and dumping also happens on vacant blocks and in isolated places.

People are actually using children to dump rubbish and one wonders the type of the adults that they will grow up to.

In the Nasinu area a family was having a field day and with the use of a wheelbarrow were dumping debris from their newly-renovated house, which included large chunk of cement pieces, timbers and what not.

I asked one of them if they knew that was an offence to do that and he said he was well aware and explained me the reason for his action. He said if he was handed a fine he would happily pay the $40 fine and if he was not challenged then the discarded items would be taken away at the council’s cost.

I asked him why he opted to pay a fine of $40 and he said that I was naive. Should he be caught it is still much cheaper than to hire labourers and transportation to take the detritus to the landfill, which is quite a distance from the city. There are other people who will capitalise on the opportunity, act impulsively and pollute the exquisite environment of ours.

This will continue until we revise our Litter Promulgation 2008, impose harsher penalties and increase surveillance.