Nico Smit
3 May 2011
New tariffs for solid waste management will soon be developed and implemented by the Windhoek Municipality following the promulgation of solid waste management regulations by the government last month.
In 2008, the Windhoek municipality began formulating a solid waste management policy, providing the framework which will govern all waste management processes within the city. Solid waste management refers to all removal of refuse by the Windhoek municipality, as well as the dumping of refuse at the Kupferberg landfill site.
The policy focuses on an integrated approach to waste management activities and processes across all sectors and provides a uniform approach towards management of waste irrespective of its nature of quantity. The solid waste management policy was launched in October last year because existing legislation was outdated and fragmented.
Through the regulations, a move is made away from the existing legal framework, which focuses largely on pollution control, to accommodate more recent legal developments, policies and strategies centred on waste prevention and minimisation. Furthermore, the regulations enshrine the City’s integrated waste management hierarchy, which is a concept that promotes waste avoidance through prevention and general minimisation ahead of any reuse, recycling, treatment and disposal.
However, following the promulgation of the waste management regulations, it became apparent that the waste management tariffs approved by the Town Council in the budget approval for 2010/2011 must now form part and be re-promulgated under the waste management regulations.
The municipality’s department of infrastructure, water and waste management has however informed the council that whereas the waste management regulations refer to a tariff policy, no such tariff policy has been developed or implemented.
As a result, the infrastructure, water and solid waste department has recommended that the solid waste management tariffs as promulgated in the waste management regulations should serve as the tariff policy for solid waste management, until a new tariff policy for rendering solid waste management services has been approved by the Town Council.
The Town Council approved this recommendation at its monthly meeting last Wednesday.
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New Tariffs for Solid Waste Management Coming Soon