The Provincial Minister (PM) of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Mr Anton Bredell at an awards ceremony announced the winners of the annual Cleanest Town Competition. Twenty of the 24 provincial local municipalities that participated in the competition converged to acknowledge the winners.
Provincial Minister Bredell as part of his keynote address explored the topic of baseline information. "This year the competition celebrated the theme 'waste management by numbers'. In essence, the need to keep accurate records of waste related data should be operational practice. This includes keeping record of the number of households receiving waste collection services or volumes of waste being diverted from landfills for recycling. Poor record keeping reflects a poor management system," stated Provincial Minister Anton Bredell.
The 2010 competition engaged 20 local municipalities as participants for the annual prestigious award. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning during 2009 awarded R 120 000 to the Overstrand Municipality as the overall winner, George Municipality received R60 000 as the first runner-up and Swartland Municipality earned R40 000 as the second runner-up. Special recognition was afforded to the Witzenberg Municipality as the most improved municipality, walking away with a sum of R30 000.
The Overstrand Municipality has yet again scooped the winning spot in the 2010 competition, followed closely by the George Municipality, third Stellenbosch Municipality. Witzenberg Municipality continued to progress and was again recognised as the most improved municipality. The District Municipality who is recognised for the best assistance to local municipalities is Eden District Municipality.
The Cleanest Town Competition focused on assessing the waste related performance of municipalities, but will in the coming year be extended to include additional criteria such as waste management, energy efficiency and conservation, landscaping and greening as well as public participation and community empowerment.
"We are not only faced with increases of water and energy costs, but the threat of climate change adds new dimensions to our socio-economic challenges and threatens the resilience of our communities. Effectively managing our resources is a step in the right direction, if coupled with consistent information management that measures progress. Whether keeping record of waste statistics or how we manage our wastewater treatment systems, information on these aspects and other related areas is vital. Progress results from doing it right the first time," said Provincial Minister Anton Bredell.
Each year a cooperative provincial adjudication panel comprising officials of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, the national Department of Water Affairs, the provincial Department of Local Government assess the performance of participating municipalities on set criterion. The criterion has two areas of assessment, these being, the physical condition and general cleanliness of the town which accounts for 40% and the support systems and municipal waste initiatives contribute 60% to the final tally for each participant.
The department through constant engagements with the municipalities placed special emphasis on improving recycling, putting a stop to the burning of waste at landfills, creating composting facilities to divert green waste to, investigating markets for the large pile of used tyres found on the landfills, and transforming open spaces to become more functional for communities.
Please note: The prize money for the competition will be announced as the awards.
Enquiries:
Mr A. Gangerdine
Tel: 021 483 4643
Fax: 021 483 3211
Cell: 079 401 0687
E-mail: agangerd@pgwc.gov.za
