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YOUR LITTERING IS COSTING US 

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In light of recent concerns on the illegal dumping of litter around our urban and semi-urban areas, it is evident that there seems to be a disconnect between the public and climate change awareness. 

The biggest challenge of note is the unavailability of designated dumping areas or better yet, waste bins. Littering in the country is unfortunately not a new phenomenon and it has been ongoing for years. As much as environmental organisations and campaigns are constantly raising awareness on the effects of pollution and climate change, this information doesn’t seem to reach the relevant parties, or further, the whole of Eswatini. 

Those who are seemingly indoctrinated on climate change are a small percentage of the populace and some litter regardless of being aware of the implications of doing so. This is an unfortunate challenge the country finds itself facing, as most people are clueless about the repercussions of their littering ways. 

For the general public, littering is not yet seen as an activity which leads to outrage, but is however, classified under normal daily habits that humans tend to have. Some even go to the extent of relating littering with the way in which someone was raised. As with some of us, without even being aware of what climate change was at the time, we were precisely educated on the right ways to discard our litter simply to maintain a conducive environment and adopt a character of being neat and clean. 

Reprimanded

However, some never experienced this kind of teaching while growing up and were never reprimanded for perhaps throwing sweet wrappers out of the window while the car is moving or being lazy to go all the way to the waste bin site to throw rubbish and instead discarding it in the nearby bush. Some have the audacity to throw a bag full of garbage at a corner of a street with absolutely no regard for the surroundings. This was evidently displayed in images that were published earlier this week in the Times of Eswatini. 

 

Even after all the effort of constantly teaching about the effects of pollution, even from a primary level, it is still obvious that people are hearing what is being taught to them but are not necessarily listening and learning. 

For years we have been bombarded with news and information on how the ozone layer is depleting and the main cause of this is air pollution caused by the emission of greenhouse gases. Some people may wonder how this is relevant to their littering, quite simply put, the litter you discard so blatantly has to at some point be discarded of in unfortunately, a non-conventional way that will probably result in air pollution such as burning.

 Litter

Also, it is paramount that people are made aware of the fact that the issue isn’t only the ozone layer’s depletion, but also the dirt and unappealing image litter subjects an environment to. 

Let’s not forget how some of this litter ends up being discarded in rivers, which, according to nature, is bound to end up in a much bigger body of water and further poison the species residing in that body of water. 

What this further results in is the unfortunate extinction of some water species, simply because one person decided to throw rubbish everywhere else but the waste disposal area. We need to be kind to the environment in order for it to be kind to us, stop littering beloved!



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