The Cape flats are situated in the North side of Cape Town. Described accurately as the ‘dumping ground of apartheid’ it was here that thousands of ‘non-white’ households were forced to move because of the Group Areas Act, and today it is home to over a million people who manage to live out an existence in a combination of townships and informal settlements.( https://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/cape-flats.htm ).
Because of the segregation, many of the social services such as lack of waste collection has impacted the people in the Cape flats to be prone to illegal dumping. Illegal dumping involves the discarding of unwanted materials in unauthorized places instead of discarding it in bins or in an appropriate place. There have been many negative environmental and social impacts due to this illegal dumping. Women and children have been caught in danger due to broken glasses disposed of on the ground, many have ended in hospitals due to availability of such, domestic animals have been harmed by many unwanted materials in the environment.
Illegal Dumping – Marikana Philippi 2022 – Lindokhule Rubusana
One may ask who is responsible in ensuring that illegal dumping does not occur? it’s everyone from the government to the community at large. The National Policy for the Provision of Basic Refuse Removal Services to Indigent Households, typically found in low-income settlements, requires municipalities to provide weekly refuse collection services to households even if they cannot afford the service. However, the provision of the services often does not meet the needs of the community because of the issue of overpopulation. Therefore, there should be involvement of the local Waste pickers in order to find innovative ways to combat this issue such as forming clubs that will focus on collecting recyclable waste in each area in the location .Organisations should also raise awareness through meetings and workshops for the community at large about illegal waste dumping with focus on the negative impacts of waste on the environment and the zero waste initiative which teaches people to avoid making waste altogether but instead to re-use and recycle ,funding will be required in order for this awareness to reach all the communities in the Cape Flats.
The Department of environmental affairs should enforce judgement and a penalty to those that are found dumping waste illegally, if possible, all the law enforcement authorities should be permitted to give penalty to any person who dumps waste illegally. Recycling bins should be made available in, parks, churches and all the places that people often gather. With all that being said, it is every individual responsible to ensure that waste is properly dumped and should waste be an issue its also everyone’s responsibility to combat the issue of illegal waste dumping.
By Lindokhule Rubusana
