“Talking to the municipality is like giving medicine to a corpse in the hope that it will get up.
Telephone calls, promises to get back to us and promises to get the director to speak to us all go unanswered.”
These were the sentiments of the president of the Ermelo Business Association (EBA), Mr Athol Stark at a briefing held last week.
The meeting came after numerous attempts to persuade the municipality to extinguish the fires at the municipal dump site that have been releasing smoke and fumes into the northern residential area of Ermelo for at least three months.
Residents in the area have reportedly been experiencing respiratory difficulties as a result of the smoke and fumes.
“We have people that have done air quality tests and we’re waiting for those results to come back, but I believe the air quality tests are probably going to prove to be toxic.”
Mr Stark said guest houses in the area are losing business because of the amount of toxic fumes,.
The EBA has joined forces with Afriforum that has done an audit on conditions at the dumping site and is in disagreement with the municipality on the findings.
“The EBA has for a long time had a very good working relationship with Afriforum.
Together we hope to find a solution to this and other issues facing Ermelo,” said Mr Stark.
Letters were also sent to the municipality by the EBA requesting action to be taken, but have so far gone unanswered.
According to Mr Stark, the statute on environmental health states that no fires are allowed on dump sites and landfill sites.
“The situation at the dump site is completely chaotic. The road leading up to the dump site is littered with refuse dumped by people who do not want to go to the site because of the smoke and the chaos inside the site itself. The dump site has not been graded since the contractor took over.
No grading or ground fill has taken place for the past year and it appears that all the earthmoving equipment is standing idle and is either broken or simply not being used,” he said.
“Now due processes will have to be followed.
“We will consult with our advocates in Pretoria who will give us directions as to the next step.
“AfriForum will also be partnering us in trying to deal with some of the problems in Ermelo.
“If nothing is done soon, the municipal manager, the director of community services, and the contractor could face criminal charges, because environmental health laws are being breached,” Mr Stark added.
If the municipality does not deal with the situation soon, the EBA and Afriforum plan to approach a private contractor to extinguish the fires by dumping loads of soil at the dump site and bring in their own machinery in order to compact the waste material according to accepted standards.
The account for such action will be delivered to the relevant municipal department.
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