Drakenstein is greenest municipality in WC
2012-12-07 16:35
Paarl – The Drakenstein Municipality in the Cape Winelands District Municipal area was named the greenest municipality in the Western Cape by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
The municipality received awards for waste management, air quality management and leadership, institutional arrangements & public participation.
This is the second consecutive year that the Drakenstein municipality won this award, Deon du Plessis, Head of Department: Civil Engineering Services, told News24.
The municipality also received an award for innovation with regards to its Meul Water Treatment Works.
Du Plessis and Ronald Brown, Engineer Waste Services at Drakenstein Municipality, attributed the success of the Drakenstein municipality to a team effort.
“I think our winning recipe is the fact that we worked closely together as a team. The fact that we had certain projects in place long before the competition, also contributed to the municipality’s success.”
Jimmy Knaggs, Engineer: Support Services, said as prize the municipality received R130 000 in cash as well as compost.
“We haven't decided what we are going to do with the money as we are only meeting with the relevant departments in the next couple of days. It would however be used for an environmental type of project," Knaggs said.
However, the competition wasn’t without challenges.
According to Brown the municipality was faced with the problem that they wanted to do their best in a short space of time and with limited capacity.
Still this didn’t stand in the way of the municipality to do their best.
How the competition works
The greenest municipality competition consists of six elements, waste management, energy efficiency and conservation, biodiversity management, coastal management and urban beautification, water management and conservation, air quality management and leadership, institutional arrangements & public participation.
The greenest municipality competition was formerly known as the cleanest town competition.
Only 17 out of the 24 municipalities in the Western Cape participated in the competition as it is not compulsory for municipalities to enter.
A panel of judges visited the municipalities once a year to access their progress.
Du Plessis said they are definitely going to take part in the competition next year as they see it as a challenge to do their best to win this award for a third time.
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