LOUIS PIERARD
Rivers and lakes lined with filth. Is that Hawke's Bay the way we want it?
The recent heavy weather pushed up river levels to expose the disgusting secret. Months of illegal dumping (or fly tipping) revealed itself as filth washed down the rivers.
Our report prompted evidence of other dumping: Few
places are immune to the selfishness of those trashing the environment.
Pupils at Tutira School told us about a field trip by pupils of the senior class, who collected two large bags of rubbish left by lake visitors. Are people who leave disposable nappies, bottles, plastic and even a large electrical appliance embarrassed at the contempt of school children? Will they heed their pleas to stop fouling the neighbourhood? Probably not.
People "fly tip" because they can ... and because they couldn't care less.
To address the first, the Hawke's Bay Regional Council has tried locking gates and is considering hiring a security firm to catch illegal dumpers who are turning out in increasing numbers. The expense will be significant but it is hoped the initiative will greatly increase the chances of detection and prosecution.
However, it will take more than the risk of exposure as a litterbug to change the habits of a lifetime. The state of the riverbanks is a mirror of society. Picking up one's rubbish is, among those virtues to be found in a good citizen, supposed to be inculcated from infancy by one's parents. The evidence found among the filth is of failure.
The Tutira school children take pride in the environment very seriously. Top marks to them. We hope their indignation shown in letters we published this week will cause some folk to have second thoughts before rubbishing the lake again.
However, many of those pupils' counterparts elsewhere lack the same sense of propriety and concern for the environment or the need to work for the common good. The cure - as it so often is for parental deficits that grow to plague us - is in the hands of teachers, who must ensure children are wiser than many adults. A conviction that dumping is unthinkable, and which makes children critical of the failings of even their parents, is the sure long-term antidote to the fouling of public spaces.
In the meantime, the cost of clearing and policing river banks needs to be weighed against council incomes from dump fees. A correlation has been drawn between those fees and the rise of fly tipping.
While fees do not justify people taking the cheap and nasty option, it makes little sense to be taking on the one hand only to pay with other. Dump fees need to be scrutinised in a united city, district and regional council strategy to combat illegal dumping.
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