THE Second Creek dumpsite was on fire this weekend, sending a cloud of foul-smelling and noxious smoke over East London’s inner city.
Dumping on the site, which had been closed for rehabilitation, restarted about a year ago, and it may be operating illegally.
Firefighters on the scene said it could take two more days to put out the blaze, as it had moved deep into piles of trash on the site that were difficult to access.
According to residents living on the tip site, the fire started last Friday and they alleged it was arson.
Tip resident Kevin Bouwers said he could feel the acrid smoke from the burning tip “sitting in my nose and lungs”.
The tip residents, who collected trash on the site to sell or recycle, claimed Buffalo City Metro (BCM) had stopped all dumping at the site on Friday. The Daily Dispatch reported about Second Creek on the same day.
The renewed dumping at Second Creek earned the ire of Parkside residents overlooking the tip, some of whom claimed they developed chest problems as a result of the fires.
Richard Langley’s home is across the road from the Second Creek entrance, and he said he had seen municipal and business trucks dumping at the tip.
“This tip is disease,” Langley said when asked if the tip had affected his health.
Grieta Minaar, another Parkside resident overlooking the dumpsite, believed she had developed lung disease as a result of the fires at Second Creek.
“I’m short of breath, and I was in hospital for two weeks ,” Minaar said, adding her health woes started in June last year when the tip fires started.
“We can’t sleep, the smell comes into the house,” she added, and said the fire had been burning for at least four days.
Minaar claimed several of her immediate neighbours had presented with chest infections and lung disease in recent months.
“Even small children are getting chest infections,” Minaar said.
Spokeman for BCM Thandy Matebese told the Dispatch last week the municipality did not have an operating permit to dump on the site, but had applied for a closure permit.
Matebese said building and garden refuse would be accepted as part of the “closure and rehabilitation processes”.
Licensing systems manager Lucas Mahlangu for the South African Waste Information Centre, a division of the national Department for Environmental Affairs, confirmed there was no permits for Second Creek on the department’s system.
Mahlangu said it “is a problem” that BCM continued to dump at Second Creek without having an operating permit or closure permit.
“If they don’t have a permit they are not allowed to dump there,” Mahlangu said. “They cannot dump there without a closure permit, as the closure permit describes how the closure should take place.
“Not even building rubble is allowed,” Mahlangu said.
Mahlangu said BCM may have applied for a closure permit through the provincial department of economic development and environmental affairs, as the application wasn’t on his system.
No response was received from department spokesman Sixolile Makaula at the time of going to print. —
Dumpsite in flames sparks residents’ ire
Dumping on the site, which had been closed for rehabilitation, restarted about a year ago, and it may be operating illegally.
Firefighters on the scene said it could take two more days to put out the blaze, as it had moved deep into piles of trash on the site that were difficult to access.
According to residents living on the tip site, the fire started last Friday and they alleged it was arson.
Tip resident Kevin Bouwers said he could feel the acrid smoke from the burning tip “sitting in my nose and lungs”.
The tip residents, who collected trash on the site to sell or recycle, claimed Buffalo City Metro (BCM) had stopped all dumping at the site on Friday. The Daily Dispatch reported about Second Creek on the same day.
The renewed dumping at Second Creek earned the ire of Parkside residents overlooking the tip, some of whom claimed they developed chest problems as a result of the fires.
Richard Langley’s home is across the road from the Second Creek entrance, and he said he had seen municipal and business trucks dumping at the tip.
“This tip is disease,” Langley said when asked if the tip had affected his health.
Grieta Minaar, another Parkside resident overlooking the dumpsite, believed she had developed lung disease as a result of the fires at Second Creek.
“I’m short of breath, and I was in hospital for two weeks ,” Minaar said, adding her health woes started in June last year when the tip fires started.
“We can’t sleep, the smell comes into the house,” she added, and said the fire had been burning for at least four days.
Minaar claimed several of her immediate neighbours had presented with chest infections and lung disease in recent months.
“Even small children are getting chest infections,” Minaar said.
Spokeman for BCM Thandy Matebese told the Dispatch last week the municipality did not have an operating permit to dump on the site, but had applied for a closure permit.
Matebese said building and garden refuse would be accepted as part of the “closure and rehabilitation processes”.
Licensing systems manager Lucas Mahlangu for the South African Waste Information Centre, a division of the national Department for Environmental Affairs, confirmed there was no permits for Second Creek on the department’s system.
Mahlangu said it “is a problem” that BCM continued to dump at Second Creek without having an operating permit or closure permit.
“If they don’t have a permit they are not allowed to dump there,” Mahlangu said. “They cannot dump there without a closure permit, as the closure permit describes how the closure should take place.
“Not even building rubble is allowed,” Mahlangu said.
Mahlangu said BCM may have applied for a closure permit through the provincial department of economic development and environmental affairs, as the application wasn’t on his system.
No response was received from department spokesman Sixolile Makaula at the time of going to print. —
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