Kfar Saba residents protest against school stench

The odors at the Golda elementary school have troubled the children, their parents and surrounding residents for two years.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Almost 200 people demonstrated outside the office of Kfar Saba Mayor Yehuda Ben Hamo last week in protest against the continuing stench at the Golda elementary school, reports www.local.co.il. And about 20 people continued to protest outside the mayor's home, leaving dirty garbage bags in the lobby and shouting, "Smelly, smelly," under his window. Police dispersed the group. According to the report, the odors at the school have troubled the children, their parents and surrounding residents for two years, and several attempts to find solutions have failed. At the demonstration, parents held up signs saying, "We are tired of the stink," and demanded that the problem be finally solved. Later, parents' representatives met with municipal officials and heard that the city's investigation into the cause of the smells should soon be complete. But they were dismayed by the city's plan to provide a short-term solution that aims to reduce the odors by moving the air filtration system from the school yard to the school's garbage room, work due to be completed in mid-August. The parents said this solution was inadequate and they would fight even more strongly, even considering legal action against the city. They said they would be satisfied with nothing less than the removal of the sewerage pipeline from the area and the repair of the sewerage infrastructure, and if this was not done they would not send their children to school this September. "If we can't sleep at night, then neither will Ben Hamo, and if we have to put up with smells then so will Ben Hamo," one parent said. Ben Hamo responded that work on a long-term solution would be done over an extended period, and that the city was doing "everything it can and more to find a real and full solution to the problem." He also said it was "cynical" to drag children into a political fight, and the city would not cooperate with such a tactic.