MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Although Mossel Bay was the national winner of the Greenest Municipality competition in July 2016, the lucrative prize money never materialised.

In the competition, run by the Department of Environmental Affairs, Mossel Bay was to be awarded R3.5 million for winning, however, the money was never and will not be paid over to the municipality.

Only in February this year, despite several attempts from the municipality to access the prize money, did it transpire that the money will be paid to someone identified by the department who will act as an implementer.

At a further meeting in July it was disclosed to the municipality that half the prize money would be paid to the implementer, who would have to employ 40 people to do clean-up projects over a period of six months in the greater Mossel Bay area.

The bulk of these clean-up operations would focus on natural stormwater channels adjacent to informal or low-cost housing projects to mitigate the illegal dumping in these areas.

Furthermore, the rest of the prize money will also be paid to the implementer to give effect to projects that the municipality proposed.

"The municipality ideally would have wanted to use the bulk of the prize money for work on the St Blaize trail, however, other equally important projects will now be implemented, such as a wheelchair mobility mat that will provide wheelchair-bound people access to the beaches and the sea," the municipal director of community services, Elize Nel, said.

Furthermore, part of the money will be used to fully fence the Diosma Reserve in Heiderand to support the protection of an indigenous species of buchu, endemic to Mossel Bay.

Some of the money is also earmarked for the Point Discovery Centre, while concrete ramps are planned to be erected at the waste sites. Sadly, there seems not to be money for several noteworthy proposals such as environmental education projects.

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