AfriForum audit landfill sites in Mpumalanga
Department agree to work with organisation to improve sites.
AfriForum audited more than 25 landfill sites in Mpumalanga to measure the quality of the sites and only 21 of the landfill sites complied with national standards.
Mr Hennie Bekker, AfriForum’s District Coordinator: Lowveld, said in terms of applicable legislation and regulations, including the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008, all landfill sites must comply with specific requirements.
“Most of the landfill sites are in poor state, this can be attributed mainly to the lack of oversight functions by the government to hold municipal officials responsible for the decay of these landfill sites,” said Mr Bekker.
The absence of landfill site licenses were a problem at most of the sites as well as mismanagement.
“There is also no maintenance plan for machinery an employees that we contacted said that some of the machines stood for months without being repaired.
“At some landfill sites there were no efficient security to secure the site and thus making it easy for informal reclaimers to access the site.”
AfriForum management met with Ms Barbara Creecy, minister of environmental affairs and her team more than once to discuss the issues at the landfill sites.
Mr Bekker said six terrains in Mpumalanga were identified that the department will tackle in cooperation with AfriForum to bring them up to standard again.
“AfriForum will also focus on solving problems at certain landfill sites in the province in cooperation with the relevant municipality.
“We will apply pressure to get these sites up to standard and we will monitor the situation closely to ensure that these sites’ standards improve sufficiently.”
