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

Dear Members,

s my term as IWMSA president

Adraws 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 • Signature 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 service providers – 2021 • Launch of new IWMSA website and member portal – 2021 • Appointment of new marketing and communications service providers – 2021 • Eastern Cape Journey to Zero Waste Virtual

Conference – 2021 • KwaZulu-Natal LaWTIG Virtual Conference &

Exhibition – 2021 • Joining of new Patron Members – ELB,

HYVA, Waste Carriers, Gundle Geosynthetics – 2022 • Appointment 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 forward to seeing everyone again, in person, for what promises to be a blockbuster event.

The task ahead

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 extraordinary environmental and humanitarian crisis, many shortcomings 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 services provided, including efficient and equitable municipal waste collection and management, privately owned businesses and the general public also have critically important 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 regulatory 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 service delivery. This is a crisis we risk ignoring at our peril – the time to act is now.

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