Nappy river flows to Midmar
DISPOSABLE nappies may have eased some of the burdens of modern parents, but the careless dumping of them is polluting local rivers and dams and creating health risks – especially near informal settlements.
Local nursing sister Hayley Farrow is worried about the increasing volume of disposable nappies that end up in the rivers and streams that drain into Midmar Dam, one of the main fresh water reservoirs for Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
Farrow, who heads the St Raphael’s community care project in Balgowan and Lidgetton, said disposable nappies were being dumped directly into the Lions River, or buried in pits along the river bank.
“Because they are designed to absorb liquid, the nappies sink to the bottom of the river and sit there until” a big storm washes them downstream.
Apart from poor awareness about the consequences of careless litter disposal, Farrow believes one of the reasons for the problem is the refusal of some municipal staff to handle refuse bags containing throwaway nappies.
“So people are now hiding them, burying them or burning them,” she said.
Nokuthula Dlamini, a parttime caregiver who works with Farrow, said municipal workers collected waste every Saturday from several informal settlements in the Lidgetton area.
“Some of the people just don’t care about litter, but the other problem is that if the waste truck drivers see nappies, they refuse to take it away. So people dump the nappies straight into the river.”
Dlamini said stormwater drains and sewers around the Ndwedwe informal settlement in Lidgetton were also blocked frequently, owing to dumping of litter.
Farrow said that apart from the obvious health risks, there was little awareness about the environmental consequences of dumping nappies and other types of litter in or next to water.
“The problem is compounded by sewer blockages. Many of the people we care for include HIV positive patients, who require adult nappies because they are bedridden or incontinent.”
Pietermaritzburg-based environmental consultant Judy Bell says she has received reports from several parts of the province about disposable nappies ending up in rivers.
Sewers
In the Mphophomeni area, near Howick, residents often reported sewers overflowing because of blockages caused by disposable nappies and other material.
Earlier this year, Bell wrote to the Kimberly-Clark group, maker of the Huggies brand of nappies, urging the company to explore new ways of managing the harmful environmental impacts of throw-away nappies.
Responding to Bell’s concerns, Kimberly-Clark representative Brindha Roberts said the group supported efforts to deal with the improper disposal of nappies. To reduce its water consumption and greenhouse gas footprint, the group had reduced water consumption in the manufacturing process by more than 50% over the last five years and reduced the size of nappies by nearly 50%.
“We are continuously researching alternatives to landfill as a solution. For example, at Kimberly-Clark New Zealand, we sponsored the world’s first composting unit for diapers. While the technology is proving effective, and we would consider the opportunity to sponsor more schemes like it, consumer habits and practices vary from country to country, which makes widespread adoption of this initiative challenging.”
Roberts said the group was also exploring a number of recycling and collection schemes for nappies in South Africa.
Rob Crankshaw, head of the KZN Conservancies Association, has urged Kimberly-Clark and other disposable nappy-makers to put more effort into educating communities about the environmental consequences of poor disposal, and also reduce or eliminate the use of non-biodegradable plastic in nappies.
A spokesman for the uMngeni Municipality said the official policy was to collect all waste, whether disposed of in waste bags or not, from informal and formal settlements on a weekly basis, and that included disposable nappies.
“All collected waste is disposed of at the Curry’s Post landfill site.
“We are not aware of complaints regarding workers refusing to collect household waste bags that contain disposable nappies.”
He urged anyone with such complaints to contact the municipality.