These are the words of a concerned Fochville resident, Mr Marius de Jager. They and many others complain that the Merafong City Local Municipality’s failure to manage the Fochville waste transfer station is endangering the health of the Fochville and Kokosi communities.
Several residents have recently complained that the municipality ignores the problems at the facility next to the Fochville traffic department.
Although there have been problems at this facility for years, they have been much worse in 2021, especially after the recent strike by municipal refuse removal workers. According to the municipal plans, the facility is only supposed to be a drop-off point, where the municipality then transports it to the Rooipoort rubbish dump near Blybank. However, because the municipality itself does not remove the rubbish regularly, the facility has become a fully-fledged rubbish dump near the Fochville residents’ homes.
The volumes are so great that the road to the facility is completely lined with rubbish. The open veld behind the transfer station has also been covered in rubbish for years.
There is so much rubbish that the entrance to the old graveyard is blocked again, even though the municipality cleaned it about two weeks ago.
The intervention came after a resident, Mr Pieter Hoffman complained because his loved ones are buried there.
One of the biggest problems at the moment is that the heaps of rubbish have been smouldering at the facility for almost two months now.
A councillor from the town, Ms Annett Venter, says residents continually call her to say the smoke is affecting their health.
The dump was already burning when the Herald visited it on 2 March. It was still burning on Monday. As it is situated between Fochville and Kokosi, the children and the elderly of both towns, in particular, complain that the smoke makes them cough.
On Tuesday, a resident com- plained that motorists driving between Kokosi and Fochville must be extremely careful as smoke from the burning dump blows onto the road between the towns, obscuring the view of motorists.
“This is an environmental disaster. I foresee an accident happening here.
When it happens, the authorities will claim it was only a small incident,” the resident lamented.
According to the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (59 of 2008), authorities like the municipality must, among other things, “manage the waste in such a manner that it does not endanger health or the environment”.
Section 24 (a) of the Constitution states that citizens have the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being.
The Herald asked the municipality how it planned to sort out the problem.
“The matter will be sorted as soon as possible,” a municipal spokesperson said.
However, the same spokesperson said “The Municipality is in the process of arranging the excess rubbish to be removed,” when asked about the same problem on 2 March.
