Medical waste dumped at Jondoru stream.

A chief in Jondoru residential area of Juba said the toxic medical waste that was dumped in a stream adjacent to Eye radio has been collected on Wednesday night by people presumed to be the culprits.

Chief Maria narrated that her team visited the site where the waste was dumped on on July 3, and found that it was no longer there.

She said lack of garbage trucks in the residential area contributes to irresponsible waste disposal into the stream, where residents also obtain water for drinking, cooking, washing and bathing.

“Today in the morning, we went to check the waste that was dumped yesterday and we found out that it has been collected,” she said in an interview with Eye Radio.

“This means the person that did that is not very far away. I want to bring to the governments attention the lack of a garbage track in Jondoru even if we collect garbage how are we going to dump it?”

“We have big institutions in this area for instance Eye Radio and many other institutions that are operating in the area. I still wonder why the city council are not providing us with garbage collectors in the area leaving people to dump garbage into our stream.”

On Wednesday, Ms. Maria vowed to hold accountable unknown individuals who have disposed the medical wastes along the seasonal stream, putting many lives at risks of health hazards.

The disposed waste includes used needles and expired drugs floating around the stream pose a grave danger to not only innocent children but also the entire population.

She added that they are visiting every local health facility to know if they are registered or not and to know how they dispose their waste.

“We have a committee that are going to sit down and know the number of all the clinics and health facilities in Jondoru.”

“I am going to write to all the block leaders in Jondoru such that we sit and know the number of health facilities in Jondoru and who owns this facilities and where they dump their wastes.”

“This garbage is not ours alone. If Jondoru is dirty in anyway, it means Juba is dirty. The whole of this week, we are going to make sure we implement this and we shall tell you the outcome of this work.”

According to researchers, improper disposal of medical waste can cause environmental pollution including infectious pathogens leaching into soil and seeping into water systems.

This causes contamination of our drinking water and agricultural land, which can affect the foods humans eat.