CHAPTER SIX
6.3 Conclusion
Organization and management of solid waste had been the problem for a long period of time because government institutions and role players of solid waste management experience shortcomings. Due to this sufficient refuse collection and disposal services are not provided to the communities. There are different services essential for human survival either in urban or rural areas that need to be addressed to bring about socially and economically sustainable development. For development its important in South Africa to overcome the greatest challenge remnants of apartheid that hinders development. This simple implies to peoples' accessibility to quality education, housing, sanitation and waste collection services, health care and many other services important as basic needs for people. Also its important to ensure that people have access to information for them to know what is happening and be given a change to policy formulation and development related issues.
Solid waste is one of the major problems in the whole world that needs attention as any other social service that people need. In the past waste management was not given much attention, which was the reason that there is high amount of waste that does not reach suitable disposal areas such as landfill sites Based on the NWMS
(1999) in the past focus was only on disposal, and steps that people/ companies should follow if they want to operate landfill. This neglected the fact that waste has a source where it is generated before reaching landfill and that source is supposed to be the starting point in waste management.
Today there are so many documents released by government to curb the problem of waste and the environment at large. This includes documents like Environmental Management Policy for South Africa (1998), White Paper on Integrated Pollution and Waste Management (IP&WM) (1998), National Waste Act (NWA) (Act 36 of 1998), National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) (Act 107 of 1998), National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) (1999).
The problem with these documents is that they are accessible only to those in authority leaving the community is in darkness. So, on that note it's important to ensure that infOlmation held by the state is accessible to people, as per Section 32 (1) of the Constitution. This section states "Everyone has the right of access to (a) any inforn1ation held by the state, and (b) any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any right," (The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996).
To make sure that information on environmental issues reaches the people different things should be done as some are stated in section 5.3 above. More focus should be on awareness where local authorities are formally educated of their role in the community. Also they need enough information that will help them to use allocated budget in a way that will save money for awareness campaigns to the community on waste issues.
Role players should be involved in decision-making as this will help in a sense that everyone will be aware of what is happening or of what is expected. These role players include government, NGO's, private sectors, donors, financial institutions, informal sector like scavengers, community, community-based organizations, and research institutions. (Macozoma, 1999) All these role players have different primary roles to play in dealing solid waste management and more information on this is in table 4.2.1 of Chapter four.
In the forth chapter of this research table 4.9, table 4.10, table 4.11 and 4.l3 reveals that income status, employment status, level of education, number of people in a property or house have consequences on peoples' reaction or attitude to waste.
People in low-income communities care much of their survival which is difficult than focusing on waste they don't even understand its detrimental impact to their lives. The fact that some people didn't get a chance to get formal education they are faced with a dilemma of informal or no jobs. As much as unemployment rate is high there is increase birth rate leading to increase in population, then at the end of the day this people have to share the four roomed house they own
At some instances solutions to solid waste management can be through transferring waste collection to members of the community. This can include community leaders, community at large being transparent to the process or selected contractors within the community that will liaise with the community in their operation.
There is a need for greater consideration on solid waste management at Umlazi. This should start from storage, collection and transportation and to disposal, and all affected and interested parties should be involved in decision-making of the area.
Due to the fact that table 4.25 of Chapter four shows that 96% of people stated that there are no Environmental Awareness Campaigns in the area, local authorities still
have a long way to go in making people aware of the impact that their activities have on the environment. On the other side counsellors and community committee members that were interviewed said that there are campaigns that are organized for clean ups organized by Keep Durban Beautiful Association under Durban Solid Waste. So people who say there are no campaigns are those who ignore campaigns and don't participate or attend community meeting.
From this contradiction it's easier to understand table 4.29, which make it clear that 96% don't know anything about Solid Waste Management Policy or any other policy, by-law or ordinance dealing with waste or environment. Therefore, its high time that polices be not only good in paper but people who are affected by waste be informed. At the same time local authorities should be involved in policy formulation since they are the ones to implement these policies at the end of the day.