Endumeni municipality entered the Greenest Municipality Competition 2015. Even though the municipality have previously won the competition in 2007 & 2012 in the category for small municipalities, the presentation prepared by the Waste Management officer thoroughly proves that the municipality has outdone its self to ensure that the city is deemed as the greenest city.
The Endumeni municipality was evaluated on the 29 September 2015 and had a variety of municipal officials such as Department of electricity, Department of water & sanitation, Department of Agriculture and communications unit to support and assist with answering necessary questions asked by the panel that was evaluating the municipality.
Mr Rajan Dubree from the waste management division headed the presentation for the municipality and he was able to comprehensively deliver over his expectations. Thereafter the panel was accompanied by the officials from Endumeni proceeded to do site inspections.
Areas inspected for evaluation by the panel were as follow:
- The Glencoe solid waste landfill site;
- The cleanliness of Sithembile & Sibongile townships;
- Greening projects such as the parks (Freedom Park);
- Tree planting projects and
- The cleanliness of the CBD/Taxi Rank areas.
According to the environmental affairs (2015), The Greenest Municipality Competition enhances Cleanest Town Competition by incorporating new elements and providing a broader focus. The Greenest Municipality Competition was created to link to other global and national initiatives such as green goal, greening the nation, reducing greenhouse gases, amongst others and thus consists of five essential elements, namely:
- Waste Management;
- Energy Efficiency and Conservation;
- Water Management;
- Landscaping, tree planting and beautification;
- Public Participation and Community Empowerment; and
- Leadership and Institutional Arrangements