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PARKWOOD residents are furious about the illegal dumping taking place at various open spaces in their neighbourhood, saying it is a health hazard and generates a ghastly stench.

And, say residents, this has been going on for the past five years.

One Parkwood resident, Ian Fortune, believes it is the back-yard dwel?lers who are responsible for the dumping.

"There are not enough wheelie bins at each house to take the garbage of both the re?sidents and the back-yard dwellers. But you do not see them dum?ping. They do it late at night, when everybody is sleeping," he says.

Fortune says that the smell from the illegal dumping site next to his house is so appalling that he cannot open his windows. "It is especially bad on hot days ? and those are the days when one needs to open the windows," he explains.

Another Parkwood resident, Hendrik Lewendal, says that he cannot take the stench from the "dumping site" behind his house. "It is very bad. Every time I open the gate to pull my car in or out, papers and rubbish blow into my premises," he says. "I have to continuously throw Jeyes Fluid outside in my yard to keep the flies away, which is costly."

Another concerned resident, who preferred to remain anonymous, says she has been living in the area for 30 years and is fed up with Parkwood being turned into a dumping site. The residents all feel that the city council should do something, either giving the back-yard dwellers wheelie bins or selling or hiring them out. Another suggestion is that the council places metal dumpster skips at various sites in Parkwood for collecting rubbish.

"The open lanes in Parkwood should also be cordoned off to prevent people from using the open space for dumping," said one resident.

Charles Cooper, media liaison offi?cer for the City of Cape Town, respon?ded to the residents' complaints by saying, "Wheelie bins cannot be issued to back-yard dwellers under the existing council waste collection policy. The only option available is for the home owner to accept responsibility for a back-yard tenant and hire an additional container. Unattended communal skips as suggested have not proved to be a solution for the city council in the past."

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