Under the Waste Act, Chapter 3, section 11 (7b) states that. “A municipality must, before finalising its integrated waste management plan, follow a consultative process contemplated in section 29 of the Municipal System Act, either as a separate process or as part of the consultative process relating to its IDP contemplated in that section’’.
Apart from the Waste Act calling for community/stakeholder participation, Chapter 4 of the Municipal systems Act encourages municipalities to conduct community participation when developing their IWMP and it provides different mechanisms by which this could be done.
The following box provides ideas on the different stakeholders that municipalities could consult:
Box 5: Identifying interested and affected parties
Tip: Identifying interested and affected parties are: These could be:
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It is important to identify and consult stakeholders throughout the development of the plan. This section should summarise the stakeholders that have been consulted; their issues, concerns, views and inputs. Further municipalities should provide responses to the concerns and issues raised by stakeholders during consultation process where possible. A data sheet detailing all the stakeholders, and their inputs should be kept. Below is an example of how this can be captured:
Table 15: Stakeholder consultation and participation
| Organisation | Issues raised/ Concerns | Municipality's response | General comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGO | Role of waste pickers in recycling | The municipality will include waste pickers in waste recycling initiatives | Comment noted, the concern will be dealt with under recycling |
| Business | When will discharge fees be implemented and what criteria will be used to charge disposal fees? | Tariff codes will be set up for different waste types entering the landfill | The full cost accounting study has provided for a range of economic instruments, one of which is the implementation of tariff codes at waste disposal facilities, Interested and affected parties will be informed of the commencement date. |
| General members of the public | Litter is a serious problem in our area, what is the municipality doing to deal with this issue; as it creates a nuisance and has caused vector borne diseases? | A number of interventions are going to be employed, amongst others; will be awareness campaigns on littering and community involvement, the deployment of EMI's to ensure that municipal by-laws are enforced and the inclusion of waste education in the environmental curriculum to educate learners about the environmental and social consequences of littering. | Littering and the enforcement of municipal by-laws have been included as part of our strategic goals and the municipality has developed an implementation plan to ensure that these issues are addressed. |
The Waste Act requires the development of an IWMP to follow a public participation and consultation process (Section 72 and Section 73). Awareness programs should be developed in order to keep stakeholders abreast on issues pertaining to the development and implementation of the IWMP. A municipality can engage its stakeholders in various platforms such as:
The issues raised during the stakeholder participation process should be captured and dealt with under the implementation plan and stakeholders should be informed of progress made with regards to attaining the goals in the five years of implementing the IWMP.
Once the IWMP has been approved it is advisable that stakeholders should be kept informed on the implementation of the plan. Where possible, the annual performance reports that are required by the Waste Act should be made available to them or discussed during community meetings in order that stakeholders can track progress with regards to the municipality's ability to meet the targets contained in the plan.