The City of Mbombela educates the public about the impact of climate change
This event aims to make a difference through raising awareness about the impact of climate change, and educating the public on the CoM's strategy to deal with these issues.
In a quest to bring change, the City of Mbombela (CoM) hosted a Climate Change Awareness Walk on September 16. It was a successful event that saw people from various backgrounds joining forces to raise awareness.
The participants were requested to bring used cans and bottles for recycling and they received novelty prizes from Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa.
The 5km and 10km routes were walked under the theme #OnlyOneEarth and started at Mbombela Stadium. Khathiwe Malaza, the manager of CoM’s environmental services, said the municipality has a climate change strategy.
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“One of the mandates is to educate the community about the impact of climate change. Currently the biggest problem that the municipality is facing is land invasion. When they invade land they choose any empty space that they find, unfortunately most of those areas that they occupy are wetlands. The next time we experience floods in the province those people’s homes will be washed away.
“The second issue is people dumping disposable nappies in rivers, streams and wetlands. We want them to stop water pollution. We also want to encourage people to recycle their waste. We have a partnership with Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa in which it will be placing a stall at the Grove Shopping Centre where the public can drop off their waste.”
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Malaza said CoM has identified a recycling NGO called Real Shift from Tekwane North. Bekiwe Nxumalo of Real Shift said the waste that it collects from the public will be recycled. This waste includes the cans and bottles that were brought by the participants.
“After we recycle the material we supply it to Coca-Cola and it is able to make recyclable bottles out of it. We have created one employment opportunity through this.”
