Teachers and learners from Fidel Castro Primary School in the Tobias Hainyeko constituency have to pick up garbage blown onto the schoolyard from an adjacent rubbish dump daily.

The City of Windhoek allocated a temporary dumping site next to the school.

On Friday, when New Era visited the school, vehicles from the City of Windhoek were seen dumping bags of rubbish just 200 metres from the school. The principal at the school said she is highly concerned about the rubbish blown into the school by the wind and making teachers clean with learners daily, as she preferred her school clean.

Ndapandula Shilomuntu told New Era City of Windhoek has been dumping rubbish there since early last year, and the situation is now distracting learners and teachers because the rubbish is scattered in the school.

“That dumping site is a concern. I can’t have my staff collect rubbish dumped by the municipality itself. It is a concern that needs to be rectified as soon as possible,” she said. 

A teacher, who was with the principal at the time of the visit, explained that when the school complained about the situation, it was issued with black plastic bags to collect the rubbish.

“Now, we are given plastic bags to put in the rubbish. It seems that this situation is here to stay. It is not a good situation for our learners,” she added. Approached for comment, spokesperson of the city Harold Akwenye confirmed the existence of the dumping site. 

He, however, said it is a temporary site.

“That area is not a dumpsite. It is a temporary storage place for the bags collection from different wards; our litter pickers gather them there. After a day or two, depending on the volume, it is transported to the Kupfelberg landfill site. It is a central collection place,” he explained. 

He said the challenge the city has is that the scavengers who take these bags open and take valuables or metal to sell. 

“We have a challenge with our trucks, hence the lead time of two days before being taken to Kupfelburg. However, the city is looking at a lasting solution to appoint a contractor to transport these bags daily from the various areas of collection to the landfills (Kupfelburg),” he explained.  - ljason@nepc.com.na