RUNDU - The Kavango East Regional Council and the Youth Forum along with other stakeholders have since Monday started the  cleaning as a build up to the main cleaning day tomorrow.

Since Monday, the organisers arranged some tipper trucks and a bulldozer to clean the Maria Mwengere road which is infamous for having heaps of excess waste dumped by residents living along that particular road and other towns residents who cannot make it to the dumpsite due to transport.

“We got assistance from Omashare Lodge who gave us a tipper truck for free and all we are doing is filling it up with diesel. Advance Truck Repairs gave us a bulldozer, we started on this road because we have huge waste heaped up along this road and it cannot be cleaned in a day, so we started early. We got 2000 garbage bags donated by Plastic Packaging but we still looking for more refuse bags,” said SPYL Secretary in the region Anselm Marungu.

The political youth leaque  secretary is spearheading the activities along with the joint committee formed up of regional council staff and youth forum members plus other stakeholders.

According to Marungu, schools in Rundu have also joined in on the activity and have decided to release learners to join the activity as from 10h30 on Friday.

 Other organisers have arranged on how teams will be dispersed in the areas of the entire town to clean. 
“On the other hand, students and staff from the Rundu Vocational Training Centre and Unam Rundu Campus will join on the main day, Friday as from 06h00.  We have a bus and a truck to disband people at various points, we are ready to keep our town clean,” Marungu said.

Rundu has over the past years made headlines of being unable to manage waste and the town has developed into a waste haven as almost every street corner or open space has become a dumping hotspot an image that has irked many visitors and residents who have the love for their town.

At the moment, waste collection is at a standstill since in the last quarter of last year due to that the town council is unable to pay contractors to collect waste and council on its own has no capacity to remove waste from households and businesses around town. Due to that fact, several cleaning campaigns have been initiated by stakeholders last year. An invite has been sent out to everyone to come to the party. 

“We want residents to join the cleaning team to make Rundu a place it deserves to be, a clean town,” Marungu said.