The Grade 12 Geography class of Weston Agricultural College near Mooi River in the KZN Midlands won a Merit Award for Environmental Best Practice in Community-based Organisations in the Mail & Guardian’s Greening the Future Awards. These boys were also runners-up at Nedbank’s Green Trust Awards.
The pupils recently received the awards for a project they started last year, to improve the condition of the Mooi River municipal rubbish dump that had been causing a number of environmental problems in the area through poor management.
The school’s geography teacher Chris Nowlan, who spearheaded the project explained, “Without a fence to cordon it off, the site became a harvest-ground for both human and animal scavengers. Underprivileged people would sift through the rubbish in the hope of finding food to eat or discarded items to sell.“ Children from the local Bruntville township would play in and around the dump, unaware of the dangers to their health posed by the refuse, and local cattle would eat plastics and other dangerous material that would lodge in their digestive systems and kill them slowly and painfully.
Weston’s 2006 Grade 11 geography learners recorded the abysmal conditions of the Mooi River dump through soil sample tests, water sample tests and through interviews with local community members. The water in the Mooi River they tested above and below the dumpsite revealed that levels of the highly toxic bacteria Escherichia coli were significantly high in the region of the dump.
“These findings were presented to the Mooi River Town Council which agreed that a new municipal dumpsite should be found. However, no site has been found as yet,” said Weston spokesperson Heidi Sadowski. “Then fires broke out in the dump last year and our boys alerted the police. It was found that the dump’s grader had broken down, so the rubbish could not be moved, or covered in sand to smother the smouldering garbage. Toxic smoke from the fires rose into the town’s air for days.”
Nowlan’s class then lobbied the local Mpofana Municipality to remedy the situation, and this action combined with the outcry from the town’s community, forced authorities to replace the old grader and to accept a proposal to build a wall to keep unauthorised people and animals out of the dumpsite. As a result of the efforts of the Weston pupils, air pollution from dump fires and water pollution from escaped rubbish have been reduced.
Joe Sadowski, the head of Weston’s school section, told Farmer’s Weekly, “It’s great that the boys are not only focused on agriculture, but also on the environment around them. They are also adding value to Weston’s neighbouring community.” – Lloyd Phillips
