While the Cape Town Central City Improvement District’s (CCID) Urban Management and its partners go above and beyond to ensure the urban environment is clean and works all year round, the festive season period is particularly challenging because of the high-profile events in the Central City which run from November to March. Manager of CCID Urban Management Richard Beesley, shares some of the challenges they face, how they deal with them and what the public can do to assist in efforts to provide a clean Cape Town Central City.
According to Richard, the CCID Urban Management department, together with its partners, works tirelessly to provide a clean, attractive and risk-reduced urban environment in the Cape Town Central City for all to enjoy. The services the department delivers are top-ups to those of the CBD’s primary service provider, the City of Cape Town.
“During the festive season where we have various events, sometimes with over 80 000 people (such as The Festive Lights Switch-On at The Grand Parade), we experience considerable strain on our services and resources. Other events include the Community Chest Twilight Run, MCQP party and the Cape Town Street Parade, popularly known as the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Minstrel Parade. However, since our motto is that if there’s an event in the CBD, the next day should appear as if nothing happened the previous day, we work hand-in-hand with the City, our professional cleaning contractor J&M Cleaning Services and our NGO partner Straatwerk, to meet urban management needs as they arise.”
J&M Cleaning Services provides close to 60 cleaning staff who scour the CBD’s streets day and night. The overnight cleaning shift starts work at 20h00 and ensures that by the time they knock-off, at 05h00 the following morning, all night-time debris is cleared away before office workers return to the Central City.
A firm believer in “strength in unity” and in that “when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved”, Richard urges the public to be litter conscious and reduce the amount of waste generated especially during events. With his Urban Management department’s byline being “Keep it clean”, Richard’s top three tips for being litter conscious include:
- Always using bins wherever these are provided.
- If there are no bins, or these are full, take responsibility for clearing away your own litter. Let go of the view that someone else will be there to clean up after you.
- Encourage others to pick up litter because, as studies show, people are more likely to litter when there is already litter lying around.
Image by Ed Suter