uMgungundlovu District Municipality, South Africa

June's Featured Member of the Month is uMgungundlovu District Municipality! Located in the KwaZulu-Natal, the municipality boasts numerous initiatives in the field of sustainable development.

Mr Riaz Jogiat, Head of Environment, had this to say on what environmental sustainability means to the municipality.

“Achieving sustainable development means people across the world having access to the resources they need to thrive like food, water, energy, education, jobs, healthcare and decent shelter without endangering the capacity of critical earth system processes to continue providing ecosystem goods and services that can sustain such a safer and just world.

If we are to ensure that our citizens have access to all of the basic essentials for human life to thrive within an economy that exists within environmental limits and planetary boundaries, local governments across the world need to create new operating systems because our existing systems are failing to end poverty and create sustainable environments. In fact things are so bleak that many say that the task of saving our planet is not possible in the time that remains. Local government leaders and officials must do what needs to be done at a local level and should only check to see if it was impossible once they have done their best.”

Some of the most reacent projects the uMgungundlovu District Municipality has initiated are listed below:

Establishment of a District Environmental Forum

Short Term Environmental Management Action Plan

A Strategic Environmental Assessment Process

The Mpophomeni Sanitation Education Project

The uMgungundlovu Climate Change Strategy

The uMgungundlovu Water Lifeline Project

Transfer of Environmental Health Services to the uMgungundlovu District

Building the Green Economy by Supporting Small Recyclers and Treating Organic Waste