Country's greenest municipality

Hermanus Unpublished would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Overstrand municipality for winning the Greenest Municipality Competition in the local municipality category, an award which comes with R3.5 million in prize money.

It may interest environmentalist to know that the competition evaluates waste management, energy efficiency and conservation; water and air quality management. landscaping, tree planting and beautification: leadership, institutional arrangements and public participation.
It is by no means co-incidental that all these categories, falling within the competition's evaluation process, are the central issues pertaining to municipal governance, that are dealt in this blog site. 

We await with much interest how the business plan proposes to apportion this prize money in the context of the completely overlooked atrocious record of environmental disasters befalling the communities in the Overstrand.

This should not be deemed inappropriate 'sour grapes' of Hermanus Unpublished, but a call to examine the record where such accusations stem from, in the context of the accolades pouring forth in praise of the Overstrand municipalities good governance record.
In this context and in summary, here are the key issues that this award has raised, where the municipality, in our opinion has failed to achieve the desired standard of excellence pronounced.

• Waste management: The ongoing pollution of the Klein river and estuary, together with the catastrophic Onrus lagoon pollution levels.
• Water management: The management of the Onrus river catchment pertaining to town planning decisions affecting agriculture water use.
• Institutional arrangements: The approval of town planning applications for highly unsustainable retail and  tourism accommodation structures.
• Public participation: The flaunting of environmental legislation pertaining to development on municipal land with specific reference to the Schulphoek development pertaining to public participation processes.
• Tree planting and landscaping: The lack of tree planting and beautification throughout the Overstrand with specific reference to Gansbaai and Hermanus central business area where no tree's have been planted since the Overstrand municipality was formed. 
• Beautification: The inability of the municipality to rein in the proliferation of illegal signage throughout the municipality. 

THIS SITE ATTEMPTS TO DEAL WITH DEVELOPMENT PARADIGMS AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL

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