The holiday season is over for many and keeping the urban area clean has been challenging for many residents as rubbish piles up on the side of the roads due to the non-collection of household refuse.

A drive into some of the villages in the town area confirms the mounting garbage bags full of household disposals and has become an eyesore.

In addition, some of the uncollected rubbish is being feasted on by stray dogs forcing residents to take their trash near their homes raising concern over health issues from the stench and pests. 

Residents in the Vaitele area claimed their household garbage hasn’t been collected since before Christmas day and has now gone up to three weeks. 

“We share the same rubbish stand with our neighbour and that becomes a problem during these long holidays,” said Matasina Semau of Vaitele-fou. 

“Our rubbish has also doubled during the festive season because we had a lot of relatives from overseas that flew in for saofai and others came for a family reunion. 

“I guess having more people has contributed to the rubbish stash we have but it would have been good to still have rubbish collected during the festive season when it is busy.” 

Another resident of Vaitele said their family had to store their rubbish in the backyard fearing stray dogs would tear up the garbage bags.

The villagers have also witnessed people dumping rubbish in the bushes and unoccupied land in the area. 

In Tiapapata on Friday there were bags of rubbish mounting up and some being scattered on the roadside by dogs. 

It was not possible to get comments from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E.) because the Government offices are still on holiday. 

The Ministry contracts private companies to collect rubbish from different zones in Upolu. 

A similar situation occurred during the festive season last year where residents had their rubbish collected just after the New Year’s holiday.