PRESIDENT’S COMMENT
GROWING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
Brendon Jewaskiewitz, President, IWMSA
For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.” – HL Mencken
•S ignature of MoU with the DFFE – 2019 • IWMSA rebranding and launch – 2020 • Award of bid for 2024 ISWA World Congress, Cape Town – 2020 • Appointment of new IWMSA head office management team – 2021 • Appointment of new IT and financial ser vice providers – 2021 • Launch of new IWMSA website and member por tal – 2021 • A ppointment of new marketing and communications ser vice providers – 2021 • Eastern Cape Journey to Zero Waste Vir tual Conference – 2021 • KwaZulu-Natal LaWTIG Vir tual Conference & Exhibition – 2021 • Joining of new Patron Members – ELB, HYVA, Waste Carriers, Gundle Geosynthetics – 2022 • A ppointment of new IWMSA Technical Coordinator to head office – 2022. The planning of WasteCon 2022 for 18-20 October is now proceeding at a rapid pace, and we are all looking for ward to seeing ever yone again, in person, for what promises to be a blockbuster event.
The task ahead
Dear Members,
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s my term as IWMSA president draws to a close, I can’t help but reflect on our journey over the last four years and how the IWMSA has grown from strength to strength, despite the upheaval the Covid pandemic brought to our shores in 2020. Some of the notable milestones have included: • WasteCon, Emperor’s Palace, Gauteng – 2018 • Becoming a National Member of ISWA – 2018 • Finalisation of new IWMSA strategic plan – 2019
It is also impossible to ignore the fact that, despite our progress as an organisation, there is still much to do if we are to make headway in the ongoing war on waste. The new IWMSA branch committees and council will take the reins in July – and we all need to pull together and get involved in improving our waste management practices, and bridging the divide between the public and private sector, if we are to realise our vision of a clean and healthy environment. The recent terrible events in KwaZulu-Natal provided an illustration of the magnitude of the task ahead of us. Just before the Easter weekend, the province’s coastal region experienced one of the most extreme weather events in decades, with torrential rain and landslides resulting in significant destruction and loss of life.
Recognising that this resulted in an extraordinar y environmental and humanitarian crisis, many shor tcomings were also exposed. The sheer quantity of waste materials of all types and sizes that continues to be washed up on regional beaches is astounding, much of which ends up in the food we consume when it breaks down, along with other toxins that we think have been ‘flushed away’. While it is the constitutional responsibility of local authorities to ensure that infrastructure is maintained and ser vices provided, including ef ficient and equitable municipal waste collection and management, privately owned businesses and the general public also have critically impor tant roles to play. The degree of illegal dumping and littering that takes place on a daily basis is simply out of hand, unacceptable, and directly contributes to the problem we collectively face. We have to do more in terms of educating and raising awareness, as well as severely penalising regulator y non-compliance and illegal behaviour. We also cannot afford to allow waste management to continue being relegated to the lower tiers of priority in terms of municipal budgets and ser vice deliver y. This is a crisis we risk ignoring at our peril – the time to act is now.
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