My thoughts reflected in this post were stimulated recently while driving past both formal and informal housing areas occupied by the less affluent communities in towns and feeling aggrieved by heaps of refuse piled against fences and in gullies in close proximity to homes both formal and informal. As a health professional my immediate thought was of the health risk that this posed to the residents with the rodents and vermin that are likely to flourish in this environment. On a human level, however, I reflected on how unpleasant it must be to live alongside these unsightly and I am sure malodorous piles of rubbish. It was unclear to me…