Waste management practices in the Theewaterskloof municipality, Grabouw, Western Cape

Abstract

Waste management practices in Grabouw, Theewaterskloof municipality (TwK) are experiencing challenges. Glimpses of waste management practices such as waste collection, transportation and disposal at Karwyderskraal landfill site are present within the study area. TwK appears to have one waste recycling facility, although the facility was not observed at the time of data collection and this provides a perception that most of the waste generated ends up at a landfill site. High dependency on landfill site disposal causes social, economic and environmental impacts. Social impacts are associated with health related risk emanating from air pollution, while, economic impacts are costs associated with construction of new landfill sites, environmental impacts are linked to the degradation of the environment (living space) due to reduced life span of the current landfill site. Based on the above, there is a need to assess waste management practices in Grabouw, Theewaterskloof municipality (TwK), to mitigate the possible socio-economic and environmental impacts caused by the over reliance on landfill sites. The objective of the study was to evaluate waste management practices in the Theewaterskloof Municipality, Grabouw, Western Cape. A waste management practices survey was carried out in Grabouw for the duration of 8-months. Thus, four (4) residential areas were selected in Grabouw in order to fulfill the objectives of the study. The selected residential areas were Rooidaka, Smarty Town, Zola and Marikana. These areas were selected based on the initial visit to Grabouw, where piles of waste on the streets and within the river systems were observed. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative research method is a research method that is used to obtain existing data on publications, documents, and meeting minutes regarding a particular research topic, while, quantitative refers to a method used to quantify primary data obtainable from the research area. Certain organizations were randomly selected based on their involvement in waste management. The selected organizations were Community Development Workers (CDW), Community Workers Programme (CWP, Theewaterskloof Municipality (TwK), and the Community Members (CM) of the four (4) selected residential areas in Grabouw. This study revealed that waste management practices in the study area are misunderstood, inefficient and fragmented. Additionally, the research showed that community members were not involved in waste management planning, waste receptacles allocated to households were too small and only two trucks were servicing the Theewaterskloof Municipality for waste collection. Waste management practices applied within Grabouw were limited to collection, transportation and disposal. The major issues that affected waste management practices in Grabouw, Theewaterskloof included organizational structure, insufficient waste management investment (financial and human resources), lack of waste management planning, education and awareness that included uncoordinated political interference on the application of waste management practices. The study discussed and provided waste management practices applied globally, in Africa, and in other parts of South Africa, which are misunderstood within the study area. Such practices or solutions as detailed in section 5 of this research will assist to improve the current waste management situation in Grabouw, Theewaterskloof. However, the waste management practices are almost impossible to implement without proper training, high awareness within communities as well as a strong commitment and support of city authorities.