Management of our dumps

POOR management of rubbish dumps is one of Ndlambe's many challenges, as it is for other municipalities around the country.

Ndlambe has only one licensed waste disposal site, in Port Alfred, and only two which are currently part of its Integrated Waste Management Plan – the Port Alfred site and the dump in Marselle/Bushman's River.

The burning of rubbish is an ongoing problem at both sites, and although fingers have been pointed at the municipality for starting the blazes as a means of reducing the mass of rubbish – after which bulldozers go in and push aside the cinders to make way for more rubbish – Ndlambe has denied its workers have started the fires.

The official position of the new director of community protection services, Nombulelo Booysen, is that environmental legislation "prohibits (the municipality) from carrying out burning operations of any sort”.

Instead she has blamed "scavengers” at the dumpsites for starting the fires, for unknown reasons.

But this denial of culpability does not wash, as it is obvious to anyone who visits the dumps that the fires serve the purpose of reducing the mass of rubbish, so that the sites are able to receive the mountains of waste that keep coming in.

That is why there may be municipal directive to the fire department not to attend to fires within the boundary of the dump sites, as alleged by Kenton-on-Sea resident David Burr, who for two years has endured the toxic fumes from burning rubbish at the Marselle dump which waft across the Bushman's River to his property.

"This smoke is poisonous, toxic and a health risk to me and my family,” Burr said in one of his many letters of complaint to the municipality.

His pleas to the municipality to address the issue seem to have fallen on deaf ears, as burning of rubbish continues at the Marselle dump, even after Burr personally met with mayor Sipho Tandani, municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni and Booysen, who was previously the municipality's environmental health practitioner.

Burr told TotT their assurances amounted to platitudes.

In the single letter of response he received from the municipality, Booysen offered the excuses that her office was "not in a position to police ‘scavengers' or fires made by them”, and that it was not viable to lock the refuse site after hours.

Frustrated at the municipality's inaction, Burr contacted the department of environmental affairs' Environmental Crimes and Incident Hotline last week, and was pleased to receive a response from the national office this week that "mismanagement” of the site would be investigated.

This was confirmed by Green Scorpion senior manager Div de Villiers, who said the department's compliance and enforcement unit had already entered into discussions and correspondence with Ndlambe.

But De Villiers admitted it was a complicated process when one arm of government was dealing with another, and there would be a number of warning notices before penalties could be imposed.

Even so, it should be a sobering prospect for the municipality to realise it could face up to a R10-million fine if it is found guilty of contravening the Air Quality Act or Waste Act.

Hopefully Ndlambe will be motivated to pursue proper management of its waste disposal sites with greater urgency than it has before.

This includes security and health issues. It is no good putting up a fence and leaving the gate open at night and on weekends, and having no on-site management of the dump.

The plight of the people who scavenge from the dumps has to be considered, but unrestricted access is obviously a health risk as they are exposed to untold numbers of bacteria. The laissez faire approach the municipality has taken cannot be the right one.

And Ndlambe has to stop the practice of burning rubbish and putting people's health at risk. Compacting rubbish is the obvious alternative.

- Jon Houzet