WASTE MANAGEMENT & ENVIRONMENT
SUSTAINING A CLEANER CITY
Keeping the environment clean may not be glamorous work, but it is a vital municipal duty that has a direct impact on all residents’ quality of life.
T
he City of Ekurhuleni offers a comprehensive waste management service across all 112 wards, including the informal settlements using different business model. More than 90% of the general domestic waste in the City of Ekurhuleni comes from within the municipal boundaries. Through a combination of various business models, waste collection services in the City of Ekurhuleni are rendered in-house and partly outsourced to private contractors to more than 718 655 service points in formalised areas and over 170 000 households in 119 informal settlements.
PROGRESS IN 2020/21 The City procured 27 additional new rearend loaders to build its internal capacity to improve on the quality of services rendered to its residents, also developing new public offloading facilities mainly in the townships where such facilities were in some cases totally nonexistent. 56
EKURHULENI 2022
In an attempt to ensure business continuity during labour unrest, vehicle breakdowns and other unforeseen circumstances, a specialised vehicle hire was acquired to build extra capacity as and when required. The City also introduced a ward-based education and awareness programme that focuses on ‘Keeping Ekurhuleni Clean’. This programme has recruited 1 244 participants deployed across the breadth and length of the City in all 112 wards. The City further procured 70 tuktuks, which are three-wheeler vehicles aimed at supporting the mechanisation of informal waste pickers’ operations. The scope for Covid-19-induced business disruption in the City of Ekurhuleni has been vast considering that the municipal area is home to Gauteng’s manufacturing hub. The construction industry reported delays in the delivery of construction
materials sourced from Asia, which impacts negatively on the City’s infrastructure investment programme. The cleanliness levels of Ekurhuleni’s central business districts have improved drastically, scoring an average of level 2 and subsequently level 1. This improved cleanliness could be attributed to the restricted movement of people and closing down of some of the businesses during the heightened levels of lockdown. The City, through its Environmental Resources and Waste Management Services Department, has also introduced the use of mechanical blowers for street sweeping, as opposed to the use of brooms, as part of improving the operational efficiency.
CHALLENGES Some of the challenges experienced within the operational environment during this time have included: • Increased volumes of waste as a result
