Residents Urged To Turn Waste Into �Gold�

Pini Bothoko | Monday September 12, 2016 15:48

He said waste could be recycled to make new useful materials, which people could sell to the public and generate income. 

He called on the Francistown City Council (FCC) to consider introducing new ways of making waste into useful products, which would then create job opportunities and boost the country’s economy.

He, however, applauded FCC for coming up with a number of initiatives that are all geared towards keeping the environment clean.

Yongbiao also called on members of the public to maintain the spirit of keeping the environment clean to curb diseases associated with waste and litter. “This commemoration came at the right time so that people could keep their surroundings clean. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that Francistown is always clean to retain its previous position of being the cleanest city,” said Yongbiao.

He said education plays a key role in changing people’s behaviour in this regard and teaches them to always keep their environment clean.

Yongbiao said there are currently more than 100 shops in Francistown, which have created a number of job opportunities for Batswana. He, however, noted that there has been public outcry that the shops are generating waste, which ends up dirtying the environment. The city is currently working towards Vision 2022, which aims amongst other things, to attract investors but can only do so with a clean environment, said Yongbiao.

He cautioned people against littering, illegal dumping of waste in open spaces, wrong disposal of used oil to mention but a few that he said may lead to health hazards.

Meanwhile primary schools, secondary schools and wards were rewarded for their efforts of keeping their environment clean.

Our Lady of the Desert Primary School scooped position one as the cleanest primary school followed by Tatitown and Ntshe Primary Schools respectively. For the junior secondary schools, Mmei emerged as the cleanest school, followed by Goldmine and Montsamaisa. The schools were awarded a trophy, certificate and cleaning equipment. Under wards, Monarch South took position one followed by Area S and Selepa, which were all given trophies and certificates.

Under recycled materials, Annah Selebe won herself P500 and a certificate after producing materials made out of plastics and Kagiso Monei took position one for glass recycled materials.