Drakenstein awarded R2.5 million as 3rd Greenest Municipality in the country
Drakenstein awarded R2.5 million as 3rd Greenest Municipality in the country
Drakenstein Municipality’s commitment to excellence saw it scooping a Greenest Municipality award at the national ceremony held at Marianhill Landfill site in Durban on Friday, 28 June 2013.
The Greenest Municipality Competition (GCC) is run by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs in which 111 metropolitan and local municipalities compete for the awards.
Drakenstein Municipality came as the second runner up in the local municipality’s category and received an amount of R2, 5 million. The prize money is allocated for projects that will further promote environmental related projects and Green Economy initiatives.
The Deputy Mayor, Councillor Conrad Poole, says: “it’s a privilege and honour to be recognised as one of the best performing municipalities for the transition towards the Green Economy. This is a pat on the back to re-affirm that our municipality is moving towards the right direction in its endeavour to become a place of excellence”
“The residents of Drakenstein can be assured that the prize money will be utilized wisely to strengthen our green economy with a focus on winning the first prize next year. I want to congratulate the Municipal Manager, Johann Mettler, and all relevant departments for a job well done”, says Poole.
According to Jimmy Knaggs, Engineer Support Services at Drakenstein Municipality, the award was as a result of a team effort and it’s truly integrated approach to Environmental Management.
Jimmy Knaggs says: “All the departments in the municipality had a role to play and no department can be praised above any other. That being said, we owe thanks to our official Cindy Winter and her team for all the dedicated work of putting the application together and all the logistical arrangements for the evaluation by the evaluation team. It was a great effort by all and as a municipality we can only improve and I look forward to entering next year’s completion”.
The Greenest Municipality Competition (GMC) started its life as the Cleanest Town Competition (CTC) with a primary focus in implementing the National Waste Management Strategy. The Cleanest Town Competition’s pillars were the principles of reducing, recycling and reusing waste materials. Although these principles are still relevant, other elements related to sustainable development and various greening interventions have been added. The GMC focuses also on effort to get municipalities to be central to the green economy.
The Green Economy Plan emphasizes the implementation of measures to strengthen and expand economic growth through recycling and enterprise development in order to generate and sustain jobs as well as formalize existing jobs in the waste area as part of the economy.
The competition was started to encourage municipalities to place focus on waste as numerous departmental studies illustrated the capacity constraints municipalities experience in delivering waste services in Landfill operations, waste collection planning, and administration and refuse collection. The Department of Environmental Affairs have a plan to bridge the capacity gap by involving community members, as partners and ambassadors, in the process of solving the environmental challenges in general and waste challenges in particular.
In the Greenest Municipality Competition only first, second and third prizes are awarded in the two categories of Metropolitan Municipalities and Local Municipalities. This places Drakenstein Municipality as the third greenest municipality in the country.
Here are councillors and officials at a display of recycled waste at the Drakenstein Municipality’s Transfer Station (from left) Deon du Plessis (Head of Department Civil Engineering Services), Ashraf Adam (Executive Manager Planning and Economic Development), Deon Louw (Executive Manager Infrastructure), Councillor Gert Combrink (Portfolio Holder Finance), Jimmy Knaggs (Engineer Support Services), Annalene de Beer (Executive Manager Corporate Services) and Councillor Conrad Poole (Deputy Executive Mayor).
Issued by: Drakenstein Municipality