Regional Waste Disposal Facility: Much needed, many constraints

GEORGE NEWS - George Municipality will participate in the Regional Waste Disposal Facility project that is being developed at a site in Mossel Bay adjacent to Petro SA, but will negotiate for realistic requirements.

Furthermore, it came to light in a progress report of the Garden Route District Municipality's (GRDM) council agenda of Tuesday 30 January, that the contractor is 29 weeks behind schedule and the first phase of the project will not, as previously anticipated, be completed by the end of this month, February 2024.

Realistic requirements

On 8 December last year, Council approved an item at a special council meeting, which resolved that George Municipality will participate in the project, but that the Service Level Agreement to be entered in with other participating municipalities, the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) and the intended service provider, be negotiated in terms of realistic requirements.

On a question about the requirements, Lauren Waring, who was acting municipal manager at the time, said several aspects are problematic.

"However, the participating municipalities have reached an agreement on how to deal with these matters in their memorandum of understanding, with GRDM taking responsibility for the major aspects of the project," said Waring.

Financial obligations

Waring said Council is concerned about the financial obligations and has attempted to reduce the impact of the projected financial obligations by factoring in the refuse removal rates over the past two financial years. "There is however no guarantee that refuse removal rates will not be affected going forward."

Safeguard interests

Waring said Council also recognised the efforts of the administration to safeguard the interests of George Municipality and its endeavours to protect the ratepayers from unsustainable tariff increases.

Asked to elaborate, she said the concern relates to the potential financial consequences should the contractor appointed by GRDM fail to deliver the project on time or within budget.

"This risk has been accepted by GRDM and should not have any financial impact on participating municipalities."

She said George Municipality wants to ensure that a fair, equitable and transparent process is upheld in terms of cooperative inter-governmental relations.

"George Municipality is determined to ensure that the finalised agreement meets our required standards and the requirements of our ratepayers and to mitigate as much as is feasible any future financial impact to our ratepayers," said Waring. "Unfortunately, the establishment of a new landfill site is unavoidable to resolve the waste management issues in the Southern Cape."

The municipalities participating together with GRDM are Mossel Bay, George, Knysna and Bitou. Hessequa and Oudtshoorn are not currently participating.

Behind schedule

A GRDM progress report on the project, dated 30 January, indicates that the contractor is 29 weeks behind the schedule set out in the latest construction programme, which was submitted on 18 September 2023. The report was in the open agenda of the latest council meeting on Tuesday 30 January.

It also states that, to date, GRDM has only received a signed waste disposal agreement from Bitou Municipality.

According to the report, the completion of phase 1 of the new cell will not be complete by the end of February, when the current PetroSA waste disposal contracts will expire.

"GRDM is currently engaging PetroSA to negotiate a possible extension of the waste disposal contracts until phase 1 has been completed and the Cell 1 A is operational," reads the report.

Risks

Under the risk implications, the report points out that "an imminent environmental and health disaster" awaits the Garden Route district if the Regional Waste Management Facility is not established soon. On a financial note, the loan funding to be secured by GRDM will be funded through billing the participating B-municipalities. "If the participating B-municipalities are not able to pay, or payments are delayed, it will directly impact GRDM's ability to repay the loan."

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