Ekurhuleni rubbish saga: Metro comes close to clearing backlog
The metro has managed to reach some priority areas such as residential areas where rubbish was left on the pavement, causing a safety hazard.
Late last week, the City of Ekurhuleni initiated a blitz to clear the city’s waste collection backlog.
This came after residents across the city were hit by weeks of a refuse collections hold-up, as the solid waste management system had collapsed.
However, the latest development comes following the decision by the city to establish a waste management task team to address waste collection challenges in the region.
Although the authority had hoped that the weekend rubbish blitz would eliminate the backlog by Monday morning, the teams managed to reach most of the affected areas. All efforts were made by the established special task team to normalise the situation.
According to the metro spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, the team was on November 15, still busy tackling waste in some of the affected parts of the city.
Members of the task team were heartened by the progress made in ploughing through overdue waste collection within a few days.
“The issue of the backlog is an ongoing target. For instance, in Boksburg, a lot of areas were covered over the weekend. The only area that could not be covered over the weekend was Delmore, which was done on Monday,” said Dlamini.
It’s understood that some of the landfill sites, including mini-sites, had recently reached full capacity – with some people dumping outside the facilities.
When asked what efforts are made to tackle the issues associated with landfill sites, Dlamini said, “The landfill challenges are already being attended to as part of the intervention of the task team.
“You will understand that all the collections impact the landfill sites, hence we must forever keep them usable to accommodate the new waste coming in.”
This publication also asked the metro to share its long-term plan for ensuring that the metro’s refuse collection service remains stable. Dlamini explained, “Part of our long-term plan is ensuring all necessary resources are available and education to our people to stop illegal dumping.”
Dlamini said the main bottleneck was the non-availability of enough fleet due to breakdowns. The city has managed to get some of the vehicles back and was distributed accordingly to ensure that the service is normalised as soon as possible.
“For example, on Monday we had one truck servicing Boksburg, but on Tuesday there were nine trucks in the area.
Out of its 78 garbage trucks, the city is currently operating with 59 trucks, a significant improvement from the 37 operational trucks the city had before the task team was formed.
“We decided in the best interest of the residents to get more trucks back on the road and more vehicles are expected,” said Dlamini.
The city again apologises to residents who fell victim to the rubbish saga, which saw their normal collection days not being honoured, as a result of the collapse of the department.
Residents who continue to experience waste removal challenges are urged to report such via the call centre on 086 054 3000.
Also Read: Metro to clear waste collection backlog in your area over the weekend
