JG Afrika will continue to roll out a programme to assist local municipalities develop comprehensive plans to mitigate the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) from landfill sites. Key components of the business plans will include self-sustaining job creation opportunities at various skill levels and the Project will make time for learnership and training for officials.
This follows the firm’s management of the pilot phase of this award-winning project that saw the first six selected municipalities formulate strategies to divert organic waste from their landfill sites. The project aims to identify areas for strategic intervention that advance the objectives of both the National Climate Change Response Policy and the National Waste Management Strategy. Each individual project focused on emission reduction, including methane with its greater global-warming potential than carbon dioxide.
The project is part of the South African Department of Environmental Affairs’ (DEA) Near-Term Priority Waste Management Flagship programme. It is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), and is being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in partnership with the DEA.
JG Afrika will again be working with a strong team, including RWA, a European based co-operative of specialist waste and climate change advisors with a global spread of projects, and Pegasys Capital, with its team of financial and institutional advisors.
Richard Emery (Executive Associate and specialist integrated solid waste engineer and strategist at the firm JG Afrika,) will once again lead the South African team of engineers, environmentalists and waste specialists, along with Stuart Gower-Jackson (Associate and specialist environmental scientist and statistician at JG Afrika) and Jefrey Pilusa (Associate and champion biomass to energy and process engineer at JG Afrika) both forming key roles.
The firm’s long track-record in the African waste-management sector and depth of experience and qualifications of team individuals place the team in the ideal position to undertake the second phase of the project.
Work on Phase 2 of this assignment started in November 2017, commencing with engagements, waste characterisation studies and site visits at the various municipalities.
Similar to the pilot phase, one metropolitan and five local municipalities will participate in the programme. They include Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, JB Marks Local Municipality, King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality, Steve Tshwete Local Municipality, Mogalakwena Local Municipality and Newcastle Local Municipality.
Emery says that many lessons were learnt during the pilot phase that will be applied this time round to significantly improve interaction with and between representatives of the municipalities.
“We want to increase the frequency of time spent on formalised learnership with the municipal representatives and ensure that the meetings continue to be intensely interactive, as opposed to mainly evaluating data and literature. Meanwhile, JG Afrika, RWA and Pegasys have developed unique methods, including System Simulation Cards, to stimulate dialogue and debate during engagements,” he says.
Officials will be given opportunity to engage with their peers who participated in the pilot phase of the programme.
Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, The City of Mbombela, Msunduzi Municipality, uMhlathuze Local Municipality, Rustenburg Local Municipality and Emfuleni Local Municipality were involved in this initial phase.
Projects identified in the first phase were based on comprehensive feasibility studies developed by JG Afrika and RWA.
The municipalities selected the best suited scenarios and the firms also assisted them in drafting implementation plans that were both practical and financially viable.
Emery concludes that he looks forward to further work on a project that has already received so much acclaim. This includes the previous Phase being nominated as the Environmental Engineering Project of the Year and the Most Outstanding Civil Engineering Project for Environmental Engineering at the 2017 South African Institution of Civil Engineering Awards.