Residents raise a stink over stench
ALLEGATIONS that waste and leachate from the Shongweni landfill site were being redirected to a landfill in New Guelderland, Stanger, has residents worried it could lead to exposure to toxic emissions – a claim disputed by management of the site.
These concerns followed thousands of complaints about the odour in the Upper Highway. Residents alleged the Shongweni landfill emitted toxic fumes that made them ill.
“I’ve been following the Shongweni matter in the media and I’m worried that we are also going to start having symptoms such as persistent headaches, sore throats and coughing after being exposed to the odour,” said local resident Maggie Singh.
The company managing the Shongweni site, Enviroserv, had its operating licence suspended in April and is currently facing charges related to the alleged flouting of environmental law and provisions of the Environmental Management Waste Act.
The site in Stanger, which is managed by Dolphin Coast Landfill Management (DCLM), is the only operating hazardous landfill in the province as the Shongweni site is currently unable to accept, treat or dispose of any waste as a result of a Durban High Court order.
“I’ve lived in Stanger all my life and I’m not planning to move elsewhere, but I can’t have my family exposed to the same thing that is happening in Shongweni,” said another resident, Roy Naidu.
Father of two, Bhekisisa Ngubane said he smelt something rotten when driving on the R102 next to the landfill site but said it was different from what he had experienced when he visited his relatives in Hillcrest last year.
“Whatever is happening there (Shongweni) is wrong and it’s making people sick. I have a child who is asthmatic and I don’t want him exposed to anything like that.
“I hope the DCLM management knows what it’s doing because we can’t risk having the same situation as people living around Shongweni,” he added.
James Ndebele, director of the Stanger landfill, DCLM, said residents had been fed false information as there was no waste or leachate from Shongweni being dumped there.
He said only a select few of Shongweni’s monthly clientele, less than 10%, disposed of their waste at DCLM’S site at present but there was no leachate at all.
According to Ndebele, the community had nothing to fear as their site did “not accept waste which is restricted as per the national norms and waste of a chemical nature which is noxious and odorous”.
DCLM’S technical and environmental general manager, Kyle Gaffar, said the ph level of the site was of paramount importance and all waste streams with a ph of less than six were treated with lime to mitigate the growth of sulphide-reducing bacteria.
The landfill’s general manager, Hannes Joubert, said their leachate was treated on the site and the effluent liquid then used for the irrigation of 100 000 trees and other plants at the nursery.
Every month 25 trees are transplanted for the rehabilitation of the environment around the site, he said.
“We are consistently monitoring the air quality on the site and have numerous hydrogen sulphide monitors on the boundary of the site and in the communities, but there will be an occasional odour because this is a landfill, after all.
“That is why we have erected perfume dispensers around the site and leachate dams to try to mitigate the odour impact,” he said.