Ts'oeneng is a peaceful village 40km south of the centre of Maseru, where the pace of life has not changed for centuries. Its tranquility is set to change forever if plans for the new Ts'oeneng Sanitary Landfill, a site that will take municipal and highly hazardous wastes from Maseru, Mazenod and Morija, is approved for construction in 2006. Although no accurate records are held it was predicted that 38,800 tons of solid waste will be produced each year by Maseru alone. On top of this, a staggering 11,723 tons of high hazardous, toxic sludge are produced each year by the textiles industries in Lesotho. It is intended that this waste will also be dumped at Ts'oeneng upon its opening. So if we are convinced of the need for the site then what are the consequences for Lesotho and is the developer, Maseru City Council taking it seriously? 

So let’s face it, in the industrial age landfill sites are almost inevitable as consumer and industrial waste grows, with little effort from all of us to curb our consumer habits and the waste associated with it. Almost all of us have a collective blindness to the waste we produce. How many of us carry our shopping in reusable bags rather than plastic bags from the supermarket? How many of us refuse to buy products with attractive and yet highly wasteful wrappings? How many of us are willing to pay a little extra on our brand name jeans to ensure their industrial by-products are disposed of sustainably? The answer is very few of us. 

But lets not despair, Lesotho still has the potential to take a long, hard look at itself and rather than producing the big brother to Maseru’s T'sosane Dump, choose the more well-informed approach, and indeed think creatively about the direction Lesotho wishes to take with its waste management in the future. 

Maseru’s record of waste management

Currently the Tsosane dump takes the vast majority of Maseru’s waste. Residential houses are located within 25 metres of the site itself. The site ‘burns’ almost twenty-four hours a day, not because it is set alight to make space for more waste, but because it internally combusts as heat is produced as the waste begins to break down. This waste produces noxious gases as it burns that is inhaled by local residents, staff and ‘scavengers’ ( a term used for people living off the site).

Indeed the unregulated workers on the site are subject to a number of environmental health risks including hepatitis and respiratory disorders as a result of no regulation and a complete lack of management of the site by Maseru City Council. To top this off the entire site is ‘unlined’ which means that the ‘leachate’, liquids produced from the site, seeps down into Maseru’s groundwater and has the potential to reach the Maqalika Dam, Maseru’s main source of ‘potable’ (drinkable) water. As a result of the newly proposed site in Tsoeneng, it is proposed that T'sosane will be closed. Thus the costs on human and environmental health will probably remain unknown.    

Maseru needs a landfill site that will take both Municipal and High Hazardous (H:H) waste

 We must remember that up until now the T'sosane Landfill has not ‘officially’ taken H:H wastes. With the growth of the textile industry through a process used to dye and work the clothing a highly toxic sludge is produced that has become a bane to the government. This waste is currently stockpiled and the government have been advised not to stockpile it for longer than a month, as the sludge becomes active and dangerous. At a cost of M1218, 718. 77 per month the government are currently intending to transport the sludge for disposal in South Africa. Toxic Sludge has to be encapsulated in concrete to safely dispose of the hazardous material. 

So one would ask, why do the ‘polluters not pay’ rather than the disposal of waste to be made at the tax payer’s expense? Well the answer lies in agreements made to attract the industries to Lesotho. The government signed contracts that states the government will provide appropriate waste disposal for the industry, without having a full understanding of what that meant to Lesotho’s collective pocket. Therefore a situation has occurred where as well as municipal waste, highly hazardous waste is produced in Lesotho. 

It is fair to say that our neighbours in South Africa have high standards on waste management. Very few of their sites will accept H:H waste, with the majority being ‘solid’ wastes only. H:H wastes require careful handling; laboratory analysis to understand the chemical make up of the waste to avoid the mixing of chemicals that may react together and much of this waste will require concretetisation in a plant based at the new landfill, as well as high specification lining of the site, which works out very costly.   

Impacts of H:H Sites

So let’s look at the site itself. In a peaceful setting a tract of land lies between T'soeneng, Rothe and Ha Mohapi, 40km from the centre of Maseru. The land was formerly used as pasture but has now been bought by Maseru City Council. The land lies on sandstone, that any geologists know is a porous rock. It also lies next to large tracts of dongas showing large movement of water along the edge of the site. 

So what are the impacts of the site. Of course, the site will accommodate large amounts of urban and H:H wastes. We only need to look at T'sosane to know what some of the impacts may be. All landfill sites smell, this is particularly so where hazardous waste leachate ponds will be located on the site, thus local villages will suffer from noxious smells. Most landfill sites are unsightly and will create a blot on the landscape for at least the next 20 years.  

The site will also produce ‘leachate’ that will contain chemicals hazardous to the environment and indeed it is likely under the current proposals for the site that the leachate has the possibility to contaminate the ‘groundwater’ under and surrounding the site as no facilities have been proposed on the site to clean the leachate apart from evaporation and sufficiently, stringent linings are also not proposed. 

The site will produce gases as the inevitable result of gases arising from the decomposition of wastes.  

The site will create traffic impacts as the rural roads receive regular heavy industrial vehicles disposing of T'soeneng’s urban cousins waste and bringing with its problems with the state of the roads and safety issues for people and livestock that may stray on the roads. 

The site will need an industrial block for concrete encapusalation for the H:H waste, blocks for staff that will include sewerage and utility needs and a laboratory, testing chemicals arriving at the site. Another note is that Maseru City Council have not included these facilities in their plans. 

And what if things go wrong? What if the wrong chemicals are mixed inadvertently upon mixing wastes. What if plumes of toxic gas are released into the atmosphere or cause a huge explosion? What are the safety measures in place for both the employees and the local population? Currently there has been no consideration of this in Maseru City Councils plans. 

This leads us to Maseru City Councils capability to run such a specialist site. It is evident that there has been extremely poor management of the T'sosane Dump, so the issues of capacity are clearly lacking. Before even the first steps are taken on this site perhaps MCC should begin to train its waste managers on the complexities of running such a large and potentially dangerous landfill site.

And finally what are the ethics of removing city waste to the countryside? Lesotho has to decide. Once again our South African neighbours are moving towards each district dealing with its own waste. 

Community Understanding and Consultation

Now despite these huge potential impacts we are told by the developer, Maseru City Council, that not one person in three of the villages surrounding the site objected to the proposals!!? We are told that the surrounding communities are grateful for the government thinking of their area for development of the first site of its nature in Lesotho!!? We are told they will look forward to the small amounts of jobs it will create.

Which once again leads us to the same old problem, did the community consultation really ensure that the local people had all the facts at their fingertips and that they really understood them? Is it really likely that every individual in those villages agrees on such a serious issue as this, with the impacts that it is likely to have? I really think not. 

On an issue as serious as this, communities need to be given the full facts of the development so that they can assess for themselves the likely impacts the site will have for themselves and their families for the next twenty years and beyond. If a substandard site is allowed to be built then the results could be devastating to the surrounding communities. Just visit T'sosane for an idea and speak to local residents.  

 NGO Involvement

Currently Lesotho Council of NGOs (LCN) has been involved with the Environmental Impact Assessment Panel for the T'soeneng Landfill and a decision was made by government and stakeholder members that the Environmental Impact Statement has some fundamental flaws with which Maseru City Council need to address. However, MCC has stressed the urgency for this site to go ahead, stating the government sees it as a matter of urgency. NGOs need to be clear that industrial developments need to fully consider the impacts on the affected and interested parties and indeed should press the government to think carefully about this site. 

If the government takes this project ahead without the full impacts of the project being assessed by specialists in the field, and if shortcuts are taken to open a site without the specialist facilities that waste of this nature requires to dispose of it as safely and sustainably as possible, the country as a whole will hold this government directly responsible for polluting Lesotho’s groundwater and Lesotho’s air when there were measures they could take to avoid this.

Why should Lesotho take less than the best technology for sustainable waste management? As corporate responsibility is enforced by more and more nations in the world, sustainable waste management will become essential for companies to invest in any particular country. Perhaps Lesotho could use its high standards of waste disposal as an asset and not a hindrance. Indeed, the big jeans company LEVI has contacted the Lesotho Government for assurances that waste is managed sustainably in their consideration of moving to the country.