Concern expressed over landfill site

OATLANDS landfill site has fallen foul of AfriForum’s ‘Don’t Mess with our Waste!’campaign, a nationwide audit of waste dumps, undertaken by 99 AfriForum branches.

Hibiscus Coast Municipality’s Oatlands site was one of 13 in KwaZulu-Natal that were audited. According to AfriForum, it was also one of the seven KwaZulu-Natal municipal landfills that did not comply with the minimum standards required to restrict environmental, health and safety issues to the absolute minimum. Municipal waste sites had to score at least 80 percent in the audit to be judged compliant by AfriForum. In its audit results, Oatlands only scored 60 percent.

However, Hibiscus Coast Municipality has taken issue with this figure.

“We note the report from the AfriForum about our landfill site and we wish to state that it is unfortunate as we regard it as baseless and cannot be substantiated by facts,” said municipal spokesman Simon Soboyisa.

He pointed out AfriForum was represented on the municipality’s landfill site monitoring committee. The organisation should therefore be aware that the site was currently 70 percent compliant and not 60 percent as was recorded in AfriForum’s audit, he said.

He also questioned AfriForum’s intentions of raising the issue with the media instead of with the monitoring committee, which he described as the “correct and relevant platform”.

AfriForum was aware that three issues pertaining to the landfill were currently being attended to in order for the site to be judged 100 percent complaint, he added. The stormwater dam was currently contaminated with leachate and it overflowed, polluting the environment, during heavy rains and storms.

However, a service provider had been appointed to treat the stormwater before releasing it into to the environment to avoid spillage during heavy rains. This process would be be finalised by August 29.

Currently, leachate was circulated back to the cells through the pump system. This system was proving difficult to sustain because the pump was failing to cope with the large amount of leachate produced and many breakdowns were occurring.

The municipality had started to build a leachate treatment plant within the landfill site, Mr Soboyisa added.

Finally, the municipality’s application for a full landfill site permit was at an advanced stage and all conditions for a full permit had been met, Mr Soboyisa added.

“We would like to assure the members of the public that we are continuing working towards 100 percent compliancy even if there are those who imply that there is lack of willingness to do so,” he said.

According to Julius Kleynhans, head of environmental affairs for AfriForum, the organisation was generally concerned about the way in which local municipalities managed their waste. Only 26 sites, or 28 percent, of the 92 landfill sites audited complied with the minimum requirements for the management of dumping sites. This meant there were 66 landfill sites, representing 72 percent of those audited, that did not comply with the environmental regulations or their waste-management licences. These non-compliant sites posed a health risk for local communities.

According to Mr Kleynhans the municipality with the worst performance was Karoo Hoogland (Williston), which scored a paltry eight percent.

“Drastic changes in the regulatory framework are necessary in order for municipal authorities to be held responsible. If the law allows criminal action against private companies, the same should apply to irresponsible authorities,’ he said.