Publications
Partners
Pretoria - Rural areas and informal settlements are faced
with the biggest waste collection backlogs in the country, a report by the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) revealed on Thursday.
Briefing media on the country's waste management systems,
senior researcher Susan Oelofse mentioned limited road access and
infrastructure as obstacles for municipalities in providing a sustainable waste
collection service.
"In certain areas road infrastructure is limited and
collection vehicles cannot reach all the households.
"Where road infrastructure exists, the streets are often
inaccessible to conventional waste collection vehicles due to steep slopes and
narrow roads with deep potholes and dongas," said Oelofse.
Another obstacle hampering waste collection in rural areas is the long distances as a result of rural settings, she said.
This also contributes to rampant illegal dumping.
Oelofse said the solution lay in making households
responsible for transporting their own waste to collection points which
were easily accessible to municipal waste collection vehicles.
Out of the six metros in South Africa, Oelofse could not say
which was the worst in terms of waste management.
The CSIR has released a toolkit municipalities could
use to improve their waste disposal systems, which would be available on its
website as from Thursday.
The government contributed 40% towards this research.
