WASTE MANAGEMENT OFFICERS’ (WMO) FORUM
Section 10(5) of NEM: Waste Act which states that, Waste Management Officers must co-ordinate their activities with other waste management activities in the manner set out in the National Waste Management Strategy established in terms of Section 6 or determined by the Minister by notice in the Gazette. To ensure compliance with the Act as well as to ensure that waste management activities are well coordinated in the Province the Department will be holding WMOs Forum on a quarterly basis. The Forum is attended by all Municipalities in the Province. This forum will ensure that Municipalities are on board with all requirements of the Waste Act and other related legislative pieces. It will also serve as a platform where municipalities can share challenges and successes and thus resulting in a more coordination.
DEVELOPMENT OF A DATABASE OF BIO-MEDICAL PRODUCERS IN THE PROVINCE
The objectives of this project are to capture the number and location of the facilities within each local and district municipalities. Each facility will be allocated a unique number that identifies its physical location, size, and type, for example, whether it is a hospital, clinic, doctors rooms, hospice etc. This identification number will be used by health care waste generators to report amounts of health care waste generated per facility to the Waste Information System, as articulated in the National Environmental Management: Waste Management Act, 2008 (Act 58 of 2008).The project will require the involvement of local and district municipalities as well as all the Producers of Bio-medical Waste. This will allow the Department to know the producers of bio-medical waste in the Province and therefore this will make their compliance monitoring easy.
HEALTH CARE RISK WASTE(HCRW) GUIDELINES
The guidelines will provide information for proper health care waste management from cradle-to-grave, namely, from point of generation, storage, transportation, treatment and final disposal. The Stakeholders include all facilities that deal with HCRW and this include the Department of Health. This project will assist in the regulation of HCRW producers and thus reduce the illegal dumping of Medical waste as well as the improper management of HCRW at these facilities.
DEVELOPMENT OF A PROVINCIAL HAZARDOUS WASTE INVENTORY
In order for the Department to have a clear record of the types and amounts of hazardous waste being produced an inventory of all the hazardous waste produced in the Province should be done as this will serve as a preliminary step for sound hazardous waste management in the Province. Terms of Reference have been drafted and awaiting advertisement. The Province will know how much Hazardous waste is being produced and this will also serve as a feasibility study for the Development of a Hazardous Waste Disposal Facility as there is none in the Province .This will alleviate the cost of transportation for service providers.
DEVELOPMENT OF A PROVINCIAL INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN (IWMP)
The need for the development of Integrated Waste Management Plans (IWMPs) is reflected in the National Waste Management Strategy as well as the Waste Management Act no 59 of 2008. These sentiments are further echoed in the Polokwane declaration. This document assists municipalities to;
- Identify and plan for future waste management needs and requirements.
- Minimise waste management costs by optimising the efficiency of the waste management system in terms of usage of infrastructure, labour and equipment.
- Minimise adverse social and environmental impacts related to waste management
ESTABLISHMENT OF RECLAMATION CENTRES IN THE PROVINCE
The Department proposes that reclamation centres are established at 12 landfill sites in the province and the people that are salvaging on site are employed and assisted to form Section 21 companies. It is envisaged that a maximum 100 people per landfill site will be hired by the department working 5 days per week and they will be generating their own income from the recyclables that they will be collecting. The Harrismith, Wesselsbron and Bothaville Landfill sites will be used as a pilot and thereafter the project will be rolled –out to other 9 towns which are as follows;
- Parys
- Kroonstad
- Welkom
- Odendaalsrus
- Hennenman
- Bethlehem
- Qwa-Qwa
- Bloemfontein ( North and Southern Landfill sites)
- Botshabelo
This will ensure green job creation for our communities as well as Reduce waste generation and disposal by 50% and 25% respectively by 2012