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De Rats!
Rats are a perennial problem across the City, most particularly, according to the City of Cape Town, “in and around informal areas, open spaces, public interchanges, CBD areas, informal trade hubs, and recent serviced land invasion sites”.
De Waterkant, with its old sewers, is one of the hot spots. There is very little one can do about them: where there are people, there is waste; and where there is waste, rats are present. They are most evident in spring, when they are out and about more after the deprivations of winter, and in autumn, when they are looking to build up safety and comfort for the winter.
There’s a strong sense that poisoning rats, apart from the cruelty of that means of death, brings collateral damage, with pets or species who prey on rats – like owls and other birds of prey, and the caracal who live on the mountain – becoming ill or dying after eating poisoned rats.
So what do we do?
The City urges that the best and most important step is to practice scrupulous waste management:
Separate out waste and put your clean recyclables out on recyclables day to stop your bin filling up with the mixed waste that rats love.
Put your food waste in your wheelie bin and never in an open bin or on the street.
Put your bin out on the street only on bin collection day.
Commercial businesses, such as restaurants might generate more waste than the weekly collection can handle. These businesses can
make private arrangements with recyclers (or drop off their recyclables themselves at the closest drop-off point, which in our case is Tramway, in Sea Point), and
make private arrangements for the waste collection, or
arrange for more regular visits from the City’s Solid Waste trucks. Although they collect residents’ bins once a week, they are in our streets up to daily if necessary. Find out more.
If you are noticing an increase in the rat population despite your measures, raise a service request (a C3) with the City. Click here for more on how to do that.
For its part, a member of the DWCA management committee will always raise a C3 at times when the rat population becomes more evident, adding another voice to yours.
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