General Management Assistance Contract (GMAC) Contract No: 674-C-00-01-10051-00 City of Cape Town Solid Waste Management Services Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan Final Status Quo Report March 2004 Prepared By This report was prepared under Mega-Tech, Inc.’s prime contract with USAID and addresses USAID/South Africa’s Strategic Objective No. 6: Increased Access to Shelter and Environmentally Sound Municipal Services MTI Contact No.: 0098-0103-SUB-TA37 Mega-Tech Inc. City of Cape Town Integrated Waste Management Plan Contract No. 0098-0103-SUB-TA37 Final Status Quo Report - March 2004 Please direct all queries regarding this report to: Mega-Tech/South Africa Bank Forum Building Lobby 1, Second Floor 337 Veale Street New Muckleneuk 0181 Pretoria RSA Tel. 012 452 0060 Fax 012 452 0070 Email [email protected] Or Mega-Tech, Inc. 180 South Washington Street, Suite 200 Falls Church, VA 22046 Tel. (703) 534-1629 Fax (703) 534-7208 Email [email protected] i City of Cape Town Integrated Waste Management Plan Mega-Tech Inc. Final Status Quo Report - March 2004 Contract No. 0098-0103-SUB-TA37 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In terms of Contract No. 0098-0103-SUB-TA37, Mega-Tech Inc (MTI) has commissioned Jeffares & Green (Pty) Ltd, in joint venture with Ingeróp Africa (Pty) Ltd, to provide consulting services for the “DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN (IWMP) FOR THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN”. The development of an IWMP is a requirement of the National Waste Management Strategy and the Draft National Integrated Waste Management Bill, due to be presented to Parliament for promulgation in 2004. The objective of this Contract is to develop an IWMP, using a cradle-to- grave approach that incorporates appropriate, affordable and an environment-friendly mix of solutions which will continually reduce the mass of waste requiring disposal and also serve to provide a dynamic framework to manage the City’s waste stream effectively based on the waste hierarchy. The Project Team together with officials from the Waste Department of the City of Cape Town and Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning have undertaken an extensive study to obtain and evaluate available “status quo” information covering solid waste relevant to the Cape Town Metropolitan Area. The status quo situational analysis is summarised and presented in this Final Status Quo Report. The purpose of the Status Quo Report is to provide a platform for the formulation of the Integrated Waste Management Plan, to review documented work already done, including policies, strategies and by-laws already in place. During the process of the development of the City’s Integrated Waste Management Plan, and arising from the parallel public participation process that is taking place, further input and information or corrections to the Final Status Quo Report (March 2004) may come to light that will then be added as a revision to the report. It was clearly evident during the period of the status quo study that the City of Cape Town is among the leading cities in South Africa in terms of its application of the strategies embodied in the Draft National Integrated Waste Management Bill. However, a number of shortcomings were found to exist in waste management practices and legacies inherited from the previous seven former Administrations, and these shortcomings are described in the Final Status Quo Report. The main areas covered by the status quo study are as follows: Institutional Arrangements: Restructuring of the institutional arrangements pertaining to the City’s solid waste services is long overdue. It is envisaged that the Transformation Team initiative and the Internal Business Unit (IBU) review initiatives currently being undertaken by the City will in the near future lead to a final assessment and approval by Council of the internal service delivery mechanisms, agreement of the strategic objectives, determination of political and business priorities and agreement on a phased approach for the institutional arrangements with specific structural and delivery milestones. ii 051300/Final status quo report/Table of Contents.doc Mega-Tech Inc. City of Cape Town Integrated Waste Management Plan Contract No. 0098-0103-SUB-TA37 Final Status Quo Report - March 2004 The institutional status quo component of the report is thus limited and without much analytical substance. This lack of substance is a result of the current political scrutiny of all institutional arrangements pertaining to services. Furthermore the status quo study does not at this stage attempt to identify any [major] gaps in the organizational structure since an approved baseline is not yet determined. Since 1995 there have been significant strides made in local government in metropolitan Cape Town, which includes the consolidation of local democracy, the extension of services, the completion of major restructuring and many other examples of innovation and good practice. Although these are formidable achievements the social and human development outcomes for Cape Town still fall way below what they should be, and the current arrangements of managing the City are not succeeding in turning the key socio-economic trends in a positive direction. This fact has to be recognised and taken into account in transforming the institutional and organisational shape of the Waste Department. Financial Arrangements: The cost to the City over the past decade in transforming its solid waste management services into a socially and environmentally acceptable situation, has been considerable. The current annual operating expenditure amount of R726,3 million and current annual capital expenditure amount of R19,7 million is to be viewed against a projected revenue from solid waste functions of R376,0 million. Clearly there is a need to address the high cost of solid waste service provision while at the same time satisfying the basic human right for a clean and healthy environment. Gaps in the financial arrangements identified during the study include an assessment of the completeness of property-based revenues, the possibilities for under recovery of revenue due to weighbridge system controls, the return on assets to ensure sustainability, the movements in budget items from year to year, the need to address funding shortfall for planned capital expenditure, the rebate system and indigent policies, a need to review the system of free-loads and drop-offs and the realignment of budget with corporate structures. Policy and Legislation: Following the restructuring of local government, several municipalities and councils ceased to exist following their amalgamation with the newly established Administrations and their existing by-laws were not repealed by later by-laws. The net result is that even within one Administration there might be a number of by-laws dealing with the same or related municipal function (e.g. waste collection). An example of this is the Tygerberg Administration which consists, among others, of the former municipalities of Goodwood, Tygerberg and Durbanville where some of the refuse related by- laws passed by the aforementioned municipalities still remain in force. The old municipal by- laws might therefore continue to be in force, albeit only partially and insofar as they relate to matters not covered in the new Administration by-law. No publicly accessible compilation or database exists setting out which by-laws are in force, or to what extent they have been repealed. A list compiled by Province and used by the City’s legal department was used for the purposes of the status quo study. Extensive engagement with the City’s officials took place to identify and assess existing and relevant by-laws. The study covers an extensive range of existing legislation and by-laws covering international, national, provincial and local municipal policies and legislation. 051300/Final status quo report/Table of Contents.doc iii City of Cape Town Integrated Waste Management Plan Mega-Tech Inc. Final Status Quo Report - March 2004 Contract No. 0098-0103-SUB-TA37 An assessment of the by-laws and gap analysis is contained in the report that will provide the background information for preparing the City’s draft by-law for solid waste management. The following key issues will be addressed in developing the new by-law: the new by-law should repeal or amend the existing by-laws in order to bring some sense and direction to the current plethora of local legislation; the principles and policies set out in the White Paper, National Waste Management Strategy, National Environmental Act, National Integrated Waste Management Bill etc should be incorporated into the new by-law; serious thought should be given to the City of Cape Town introducing economic instruments (eg incentives, taxes, levies) to help achieve integrated (solid) waste management; effect must be given to the requirements of the Municipal Systems Act and the devising of a tariff policy; law enforcement should be increased and stiffer fines and sentences should be implemented to act as deterrent. Waste Collection and Area Cleaning: Waste collection and Area Cleaning constitute the core functions of the City’s Waste Department. The two functions operate under separate departments, although resources are to some extent shared or integrated. The Unicity has, as an interim arrangement, been partitioned into four distinct waste collection and area cleaning management areas, each managed by an Area Manager (Collection and Area Cleaning). These management areas comprise Atlantic (Blouberg/Steenberg/Twelve Apostles), Tierberg (Welgelegen/Valhalla/Klipheuwel), Impuma (Joostenberg/Blackheath/Maccassar) and Two Oceans (Wolfgat/Sandvlei/Cape Point). Fifty-seven former depots serve the four management areas. Collection beats have generally been determined according to historic boundaries of the former Administrations. A beat is defined as an activity that is covered by a specific collection vehicle per day. The Unicity is currently divided into 601 department refuse collection beats serving 473 400 erven and a population of approximately 2,5 million.