Greenest Municipality competition winners

The greenest local municipality in the Western Cape for 2019 is Drakenstein Municipality. Swartland Municipality is the runner up with Mosselbay Municipality placing third in the annual Greenest Municipality Competition.

The winners of the 2019 competition for the Western Cape were announced at an awards ceremony hosted by the Provincial Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell on Tuesday evening. 

Bredell says the Greenest Municipality Competition is aimed at motivating and inspiring municipalities to address environmental issues in their regions.

“Municipalities play a critical role in our country’s collective response to the challenges posed by climate change. If our towns aren’t more efficient and aren’t better prepared for the challenges we face, then the economic growth we need in our country will just not be possible,” Bredell said.

Bredell said it is critical that municipalities become more resilient and use their resources more efficiently.

“These include ensuring resources like water and electricity are managed optimally or simply cutting down on waste. We must better conserve resources, use them wisely and ensure that access to these resources is shared fairly across all communities.”

For the competition, municipalities were evaluated in various categories including waste management, biodiversity management, water and  conservation management and air quality management.

“This competition seeks in part, to celebrate and congratulate those among us who are doing their best to drive greater change in their communities and who are trying to make their communities more resilient and more environmentally friendly,” Bredell said.

This year the main category winners were:

•          Climate Change Response - Drakenstein Municipality

•          Air Quality Management - Drakenstein Municipality

•          Waste Management - Saldanha Bay Municipality

•          Water Conservation & Management - Swartland Municipality

•          Biodiversity Management - Overstrand Municipality

•          Coastal Management & Urban Beautification - Mosselbay Municipality

•          Leadership, Compliance, Institutional Arrangements & Public participation –

Hessequa Municipality

Drakenstein Municipality won R260 000, Swartland won R140 000 and Mosselbay won R100 000.

ENDS.