Merit award ‒ Environmental best practice in community-based organisations: Weston Agricultural College project
What happens when ordinary people go that extra mile? Well, grade 11 learners at Weston Agricultural College in KwaZulu-Natal can tell you: they win awards, repeatedly. But, more importantly, they bring about real change for people living in their community.
Weston’s grade 11 geography project has improved the condition of the local municipal rubbish dump — the cause of a number of environmental problems in the area. The work done by pupils and staff has mobilised the community and forced authorities to better manage the dumpsite. As a result they have decreased air pollution from continual dump fires, as well as pollution in the local Mooi River, and they have improved the lives of residents who live next to the site in the Bruntville township.
Weston is an agricultural high school, located just outside the town of Mooi River. Geography teacher Chris Nowlan began the geography environmental project as a way for his pupils to apply their learning outside the classroom.
”My little geography class has caused positive change,” says Nowlan of the project. ”And it becomes real education when you’re causing positive change in the environment.”
Nowlan’s class has monitored the municipal landfill site to discover its impact on the surrounding environment and community since 2001. The dump has been the source of a host of environmental problems, says Nowlan.
With no fence to cordon it off, the site has become a harvest ground for scavengers, both human and animal. Poor people sift through the rubbish in the hope of finding food or discarded items they can sell to supplement their income. Nowlan’s class has documented children from Bruntville playing in and around the site, unaware of the dangers to which they are exposed.
Local cattle are free to wander the dump, says Nowlan, eating plastics and other dangerous material that get lodged in their digestive system, killing them slowly.
The pupils first recorded the abysmal conditions at the dump through soil sample tests, water sample tests and interviews conducted with people in the local community.
At the start of the project Nowlan’s class conducted tests of Mooi River’s water, both below and above the dumpsite. They found the e-coli count in the river’s water to be much higher in the region of the dump.
Nowlan’s class presented their findings to the local town council and it was agreed that a new site must be found for the rubbish dump. They were named runners-up for the Green Trust awards, a forerunner to the Mail & Guardian‘s Greening the Future Awards, for their work.
But, after hiring a private consultancy to help find a new dumpsite and after two years of searching, new land still has not been found. Nowlan’s grade 11s, however, have continued to keep a close eye on problems at the dump.
When fires broke out on the site early last year, the school was on hand to alert the public. Since the site’s grader had broken down, rubbish could not be moved or covered in sand to smother the smouldering garbage. Toxic smoke from ongoing underground fires rose into the air for days on end.
Nowlan’s class lobbied the local Mpofana municipality to remedy the situation and, combined with the outcry from the community, authorities were forced to take action. The municipality replaced the old grader and a permanent wall has been proposed to prevent people and animals from wandering on to the dump.
The judges of the award saw a great deal of merit in Nowlan’s attitude to learning.
”It is an example of applying lessons learned in the classroom to the broader world,” said one judge. Another judge commented that it was commendable that the college provides sound training and encourages community involvement and participation. ”The dump project shows what can be done with education, focus and lobbying,” the judge said.
Weston’s environmental ethic has extended to other areas as well. Since the school has a strong agricultural bias, they grow their own vegetables on the school farm and this teaches the principles of organic agriculture to the learners. The school also saves all extra food from its hostel and donates it to an HIV/aids orphans feeding scheme.
