November 6, 2006
By Anish Abraham
PIKITUP has declared war on illegal dumping in Zandspruit. The City's waste management utility launched its highly successful Project 100 Spots campaign in the informal settlement at the start of November.
According to Edson Mphuphuli, Pikitup's Randburg depot manager, illegal dumping is not only a problem in the informal settlement, located near Randburg, but throughout the city.
"The growth in this unscrupulous practice is unfortunately not limited to a specific area or suburb and affects all residents of the city," he said. Pikitup has earmarked 26 areas in the informal settlement as hotspots that require intervention as a matter of priority.
The campaign will run through November and is being carried out in partnership with Metro Police, Emergency Management Services, Johannesburg Water, the Housing Department, the Health Department's environmental health unit and the South African Police Service in Honeydew.
Pikitup, the City's waste management utility is taking Project 100 Spots to Zandspruit in Randburg
Pikitup kicked off the project with an educational campaign. Its environmental trainers spent two-and-a-half weeks teaching Zandspruit residents about waste disposal methods, environmental health issues and the importance of a healthy environment. Residents were also given pamphlets on relevant environmental issues.
"The real challenge is in changing the mindset of the residents, in how they treat the environment, but we are making progress," said Smith Radingwana, the manager for community development and environmental education and awareness at Pikitup.
This was vital as the Constitution states that citizens should enjoy a healthy environment. The utility was also keen on promoting the benefits of recycling more waste.
He added that Pikitup would help the residents to establish the Zandspruit Environmental Forum, bringing together members of the local ward committee, schools, churches and other civil society organisations.
The forum would then be responsible for taking care of illegal dumping sites once they had been cleaned up, and finding suitable alternative uses for them. When left vacant, empty spaces tended to become illegal dumping grounds as soon as they had been cleaned.
"Our goal in such campaigns is to clean up, care for, beautify and ensure further development. That could include creating parks or community vegetable gardens in the vacant areas that have been cleaned up," Radingwana explained.
Pikitup first launched a pilot of its Project 100 Spots in Soweto in 2002, when various City departments, City-owned entities, the police and the community worked together to find sustainable ways of stopping illegal dumping.
It was so successful that Pikitup was awarded the Innovation Award 2004 from the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management. Pikitup won the award for its innovative approaches to dealing with waste management.
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