Illegal dumping remains a serious problem for Empangeni
uMhlathuze Municipal Manager of Waste Services, Michael Nzuza, addressed residents at the Ward 23 community meeting on Wednesday evening, where he urged them to take responsibility
THE city has appealed to Empangeni residents to take charge of their waste amid the illegal dumping ‘crisis’ in town.
uMhlatuze Municipal Manager of Waste Services, Michael Nzuza, addressed residents at the Ward 23 community meeting on Wednesday evening, where he urged them to take responsibility.
According to Nzuza, about 70% of waste dumped was found to be rubble, 22% is green waste, only 7% is household waste and 1% is other forms of waste, including tyres.
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‘With current resources, the municipality is only able to remove around 30% of waste from illegal dumping sites,’ he said.
‘Hundreds of bakkie loads of broken toilets, TV sets and building rubble can be found at some of the hot spots at Empangeni Rail, behind uMhlatuze Village and the sewage farm in Richem.
‘We have a challenge in that several garden waste removal companies operating in our town and suburbs dispose of building rubble illegally.
‘In terms of the municipal illegal dumping and recreational plan, it is residents’ responsibility to ensure they do not pay the service providers until they produce receipts from the allocated dumpsites, proving that they paid to have the waste correctly disposed of at landfill sites,’ said Nzuza.
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The greenbelts are also under threat with no solutions at hand.
‘At the moment we find a lot of building rubble, garden and solid waste in the greenbelts. Recently we even found medical waste dumped.
‘Every citizen must ensure that we have a clean and safe environment. While we will present our intervention plans in March, we request residents to play their part and ensure that they are not contributing to the problem.
‘We have people who say that it is very expensive to dump their garden waste at landfill sites, so they dump it all over the place.
‘We must keep in mind that illegal dumping is a contravention of the by-law.’
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