The following is an extract of the speech delivered by the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Herman Mashaba on World Environment Day.
Our City is the economic hub of Africa, and our business owners and entrepreneurs are constantly seeking new ways to expand their operations.
This is a good thing, as we must continually seek new ways to create more employment for our people and grow our economy. However, this cannot go unchecked and happen at the cost of the environment.
It is against this backdrop that the City of Joburg aims to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to discuss and implement best practices.
Up until now, illegal dumping has cost the City R80 million per annum. The City generates 1.6 million tons of waste per annum, which is deposited at landfill sites.
Unfortunately we have reached a point where our landfill sites are running out of airspace, and for this reason, responsible waste management is crucial.
It is for this reason that I am particularly happy about the partnership between the City’s waste management service provider, Pikitup, and Miss Earth South Africa.
Through this partnership, the City aims to mobilise our communities and stakeholders to protect and preserve the environment by applying basic principles of waste minimisation. Residents and stakeholder alike must learn to reduce, reuse and recycle.
In an effort to enhance the over-all services that Pikitup deliver to the residents of our City, we have allocated:
- R2.4 billion to Pikitup to clear illegal dumping and meet waste collection needs during the 2017/18 financial year;
- R150 million has been set aside for the cleaning of informal settlements during 2017/18; and
- R50 million has been allocated for Pikitup to continue its third cleaning shift within the inner city.
It is also good news to communicate that 264 889 households across the City are partaking in the City’s Separation-At-Source Project, led by Pikitup.
This initiative ensures that every household receives two refuse bags per week for recyclable material – one for paper and one for mixed materials such as glass, plastic and tins which is then collected by Pikitup.
Studies indicate that our supply of water will continue to be under serious threat, and it is for this reason that the City’s average tariff increase of 12.2% for the 2017/18 financial year emphasises the importance of water as a scarce resource and we it will create a culture of water conservation.
Depending on household income, our poorest residents will receive between 10 and 15 kilolitres of free water per household, per month.
Furthermore, the City will follow the trend across our country’s metro to no longer provide free basic water to all residents, but only to registered indigent residents. Given the scarcity of water in Joburg and present priorities, we believe it is in the best interests of our residents to follow this national trend.
Further to this, with respect to biodiversity conservation, we aim to work towards the protection of sensitive biodiversity areas, rare and threatened fauna and flora and preserve adequate passive open space for the protection of critical ecosystems.
Through our Open Space Management and Development Framework, the City actively aims to improve equity and access to public open space for recreation for all its communities.
With respect to water resource management, the City is in the process of putting together plans for the rehabilitation of all 18 of our water management units across the Klip and Jukskei River catchments.
Alongside this, the City will implement a number of mechanisms and programmes to improve air quality to a level that is acceptable and informed by continued air quality monitoring, research and compliance monitoring.
In this endeavour, the City will also work co-operatively with all stakeholders to efficiently and effectively manage air quality.
The city has high levels of human induced anthropogenic GHG emissions. These emanate from processes within the transport, energy, industrial and domestic spheres.
The City therefore aims to enhance Energy Efficiency and the use of alternative energy sources, enhance stakeholder engagement with internal and external parties and roll out education and awareness programmes.
By working together, we can ensure that we turn Joburg into a healthy, clean and sustainable City, which will provide opportunities to residents for generations to come.