Press Release
27 November 2019
An environmentally conscious city caring for the planet and the next generation, Drakenstein Municipality continually pioneers cutting-edge sustainable management practices. At last night's Western Cape Greenest Municipality Competition, this commitment was officially recognised when Drakenstein Municipality won the 2019 Greenest Municipality Award in the Western Cape.
Swartland Municipality followed in second place, and Mossel Bay Municipality in third.
“We are overjoyed and feel incredibly honoured to receive the Top Achiever Award," says Alderman Conrad Poole, Executive Mayor of Drakenstein Municipality. “As a city of excellence, this highlights our continued quest to grow Drakenstein's economy in a sustainable manner – through innovation - and to ensure that our social practices remain environmentally sound."
Drakenstein Municipality (Paarl, Wellington, Mbekweni, Saron, Hermon, Gouda and Simondium) also walked away with the award for the Most Improved Municipality for Climate Change, achieving 96% in 2019 (the highest percentage measured in any category since the inception of the competition), which is up from its 76.33% in 2017. The Municipality further won the award for the Most Improved Municipality for Waste Management, achieving 79.8% in 2019 - up from 61.8% in 2017.
Drakenstein Municipality, the largest municipality in the Western Cape outside the City of Cape Town, further took home an Innovation Award for its landfill waste entrepreneurs project; as well as an Innovation Award for its Leliefontein Reservoir electricity generation.
In addition, Drakenstein Municipality took the top honours as the best performing municipality in two of six fields, namely:
1) waste management; and 2) air quality.
“For Drakenstein's investors, developers, businesses, tourists and residents, these awards are a clear indication that our area boasts clean air and water, that our waste is collected and managed smartly right through to disposal, and that we care for our environment. These factors are important when people consider establishing their businesses and livelihoods in an area," says Executive Mayor Poole.
“Because Drakenstein is so pristine and naturally beautiful, it is regarded the goose that lays the golden eggs, and should therefore be protected. This requires a fine balancing act between the drive to develop on the one hand, and the need to maintain and protect our natural heritage on the other," he continues.
“What this means for the community of Drakenstein, is that they can have confidence that – through an independent evaluation and auditing process – their Municipality's environmental practices have been scrutinised and have been found to be the best in the Western Cape," he says.
As part of the Top Achiever prize and trophy, Drakenstein Municipality receives R260 000, for which it will submit a business plan – incorporating elements such as waste management, biodiversity, climate change response, energy efficiency, air quality and leadership institutional arrangements.
Climate partnership with City of Neumarkt seen as best international practice
One of the several contributing factors to Drakenstein Municipality's performance in environmentally sustainable management, is the Climate Partnership it has had with the City of Neumarkt, Germany, for the past five years. The fruit on this partnership so far includes: A climate smart river park being developed in Paarl's Arboretum; clearing the Berg River's banks of invasive alien vegetation; exchange of waste management expertise; environmental education for schools and two school partnerships; and a youth exchange programme between the two regions.
“The Climate Partnership has surely given Drakenstein's green status a boost. We share a vision of a sustainable, eco-savvy local government and community with the City of Neumarkt," says Executive Mayor Poole. He recently represented Drakenstein Municipality at a conference on the United Nations' Sustainable Goals 2030 held in Germany, where this partnership was regarded as best international practice.
More on Drakenstein Municipality's landfill waste entrepreneurs project (Innovation Award)
Drakenstein Municipality's Solid Waste Management Division developed a model to address the issue of illegal waste pickers at the Wellington landfill site, who were compromising the landfill site's legal status on a daily basis. The Municipality empowered them by providing them with training - through the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning. The Municipality also issued the new waste entrepreneurs with proper personal protective equipment and personal name boards; as well as recyclable material to sort and resell. Recyclers then buy this material directly from the waste entrepreneurs, providing them with a daily income.
Drakenstein Municipality has further implemented a pay-as-you-throw business collection system where businesses are provided with official municipal wheelie bins, which are registered and paid for, and collected by the Municipality. No private companies are, according to the by-law allowed, to collect municipal waste. This is how Drakenstein Municipality ensures businesses reduce and recycle their waste. The less a business throws away, the less it pays.
More on Leliefontein Reservoir electricity generation (Innovation Award)
The acclaimed Leliefontein Pump-As-Turbine (PAT) Station is deemed the first of its kind in South Africa. The plant was originally intended to be a booster pump station to supply water to Wellington during peak summer periods, but now also serves as a productive mini hydro power station. Leliefontein uniquely uses the same set of pumps to pump water and generate electricity by reversing flow through the pumps. It is a true marriage between the civil, mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines. The Leliefontein project is the perfect example of how municipalities can use low-cost, off-the-shelf equipment - such as centrifugal pumps and induction motors - to generate clean power using potential energy in their existing infrastructure.
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Issued by: Communication and Marketing, Drakenstein Municipality
For media enquiries, contact: Riana Geldenhuys, Manager: Communication and Marketing, Drakenstein Municipality, on 021 807 6390, 082 460 5554 or rianag@drakenstein.gov.za.
