(4) The Dumpster System of Collecting Waste in Sekhukhune
A Community Monitors Investigation into the Waste Crisis in Sekhukhune, October – November 2021
The only waste collection system that we see is Dumpsters on the main rood . Trucks collect the waste from these dumpsters and and take them to landfills . We investigated to check why this system was not working.We visited each dumpster and took took geo located pictures. We mapped our pictures to see where the dumpsters were located and which communities they served.
We found the following . ·
There are only 9 dumpsters along the R37 road which is the main road that runs from one end of Sekhuhune to the other passing all the villages. In the Fetagomo-Tubatse municipality thes dumpsters serve 83 199 households and population of 335 767 and according to STATSA 2011. ·
The location of the dumpsters are far away from the where residents live . They require a wheel barrow to take the waste to the dumpsters or purchase their own black bags. From our map we were able to see large sections of the people living far away from the R37 ·
Many of the The dumpsters are overflowing, which means that they have not been emptied regularly
·People dump around the dumpsters and not in the dumpster. People transport waste from homes to dumpsters using wheel barrows, which are usually full. At the Dumpster, which is high up , it is too difficult to tip the waste into the dumpsters the therefore they level the waste around the dumpsters. The Dumpsters are not user friendly. ·
According to people who stays next to the dumpsters at R37 the smell is bad and pollution is high when rain and wind comes it takes everything back to the community some ended up in the river through erosion. ·People who stand close by sometimes burn this waste inside the dumpsters for them to be able to have space and avoid bad, smell and dirt.
We noticed that the dumpsters located on R37 Monitors are near mine crossings d oTwickenham cross= Twickenham mine oMarula cross= Marula mine, Mandagshoek cross= Dilokong mine oModikwa cross= Modikwa mine. oSteelport cross= SAMANCOR mine oAnd the remaining 4 dumpsters where spotted in town. ·From Twickenham cross to Atok there’s no dumpsters and is about 35 km distance with many villages along the roads. ·According to IDP this municipality waste management plan is as follows only 5 areas have waste collection services ( Burgersfort, Ohrigstad,Praktiseer ,Steelport and Gapodile)
We don’t know wether this system is run by the Municipality or by a contractor. We are still investigating.
Sekhukhune Residents – Please add to this story . Please say if you have more information on the Dumpsters . Please WhatsApp your comments and pictures to : +27 79 623 5248
