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Cooperative governance, solid waste management and local government system

Submitted by Matthew Gaylard on Thu, 2009-08-27 15:57
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Some of the key issues arising from the paper on "Cooperative governance, solid waste management and local government system" include:

  • Is the objective of universal provision of waste services attainable, and what steps are required in order to move us to towards this goal? How should the inter-governmental fiscal system by utilized to support such a roll-out?
  • How should government address the massive challenge of unpermitted and non-compliant landfills, and what fiscal resources can be utilized for this purpose?
  • Given the widely divergent capacities in the local government system, how should a differentiated system of implementing the waste hierarchy by municipalities be established, and what is the best way to incentivize municipalities to implement the waste hierarchy?
  • How should the system of integrated waste management planning and performance reporting set out in the Waste Act be aligned with the mainstream processes of planning, budgeting and reporting in the three spheres of government, and what guidelines should be issued in this regard?
  • What should be the role of Waste Management Officers (WMOs) and how should their functions be coordinated with other role players? Is the proposal for WMOs to play a role of independent regulatory role in conflict with their other functions assigned in terms of the Waste Act?
‹ Joint MRA & NRO response to research papers National Waste Quantification and Waste Information System ›

Comments from PACSA

Submitted by A M Marthinusen on Wed, 2009-09-02 18:46.

PACSA has the following points to make about the paper:

  1. The paper provides a wealth of information and what appears to be good analysis.
  2. Statistics are very difficult in this area, but we sense that some numbers are way off. For instance on p24 Gauteng reports that waste volumes have grown by some 79% per year. This is incredible and needs to be seen as example against an average annual packaging industry volume growth over the last 10 years of 2,8%. Another major metropolis has reported landfill volumes growing ave 7% in the period 2000- 2007. Also, compare the 2,2% of waste generated in Gauteng (p28) sent for recycling with the 40,8% national recycling rate for the paper and packaging industries in 2007.
  3. We fully support the recommendations in Section 4: Financing, particularly with regard to suggested amendments to the MIG programme rules and private financing.