Rehabilitation of the Roundhill landfill site in the small East London town of Berlin will bring much-needed relief to Buffalo City Metro, residents of Berlin and surrounding areas.

Major upgrades to rehabilitate the site were almost complete as of June this year and they will set the benchmark for waste management in the Metro as the landfill will now be equipped to handle and manage waste efficiently and effectively.

Past compliance issues

Past incidences of non-compliance had resulted in smoke and toxic gasses being released into the air due to uncovered waste. These had happened relatively frequently.

Speaking at the landfill site Executive Mayor Alfred Mtsi said, “The implementation and rehabilitation plan for this landfill site marks the beginning of a new journey towards integrated waste management for the City.”

Mtsi said waste management is a global issue and that the Metro has set a mandate to deal with waste effectively so that the health and safety of the citizens is not compromised.

“Recycling waste and providing environmental protection is our long term vision,” said Mtsi.

The Metro is currently drafting a waste management strategy to deal with waste effectively in the City.

Engineering expertise

In dealing with the challenges at Roundhill site, the Metro awarded an emergency tender in August 2014 to Envitech Solutions.

The Gauteng-based company, which has expertise to carry out studies from preliminary investigations through to detailed design and implementation of waste management and disposal systems, and Interwaste Environmental Solutions were hired to try and turn the landfill site around.

Speaking about the development of the landfill site, technical engineer for Envitech Solutions Abinash Dookhi said, “The biggest challenge we faced was managing the harmful gas leachate which causes significant threat to ground and surface water.”

He also said that when they arrived at the Roundhill landfill site, the site was in a bad condition and it was not compliant according to the national landfill regulations.

“The waste not being covered meant that harmful gases where being released and contaminating the air and the water in the area. Residents were living on the land fill site illegally as well as endangering their own health,” commented Dookhi.

Dookhi also added a lot of work needed to be done but added that he was positive that with the assistance of the Metro it could be done.

“We had various meetings with the Metro and drafted a detailed plan on how Envitech and Interwaste Solutions were going to turn the landfill site into an engineered landfill site and make it 100 percent compliant,” said Dookhi.

Much higher compliance

It has taken three years to turn Roundhill Landfill site from 30% compliance to 80% compliance today.

This has also opened up employment opportunities for a group of 50 residents who were living at the landfill site earning between R250 and R500 per week.

The group were organised into small groups and were equipped with business opportunities of collecting cupboards, plastic bottles, used cans and many more disposals that are being dumped by trucks at the site.

 

Source: http://www.buffalocitymetro.gov.zaLead 2 Roundhill