The rising prevalence of the failure of fast-growing cities’ waste authorities to account for solid waste service function and provide effective solid waste systems poses serious environmental hazards and health risks. Household solid waste mismanagement in Mthatha, a fast-growing city in South Africa with a rapid population increase, is emerging as a major environmental hazard. An effective solid waste audit system could reduce the extent of this problem. This study aimed at categorising and quantifying household solid waste generation and determining the drivers of waste generation and mismanagement that have the potential to increase risk and/or vulnerability to household solid waste-related environmental hazards. Stratified random sampling was used to select 248 sample households and to categorise them according to upgraded high-density informal residential settlements (64), high-density formal residential settlements (62), middle-density residential settlements (61) and low-density residential settlements (61). The results revealed that the waste generation rate increased one moves from informal settlements (1.84 bags of waste per household per week) to low-density, low socio-economic statuses (2.26 bags), middle-density settlements (2.39 bags) and low-density residential settlements (2.84 bags). Food waste was the most commonly generated type of waste for more than 50% of the respondents. Approximately 89% of the most common types of waste reported across all settlements had the potential to be recycled, reused or composted. Only four factors emerged as significant determinants ( p < 0.05) of the volume of solid waste generated per household per week: household socio-economic status, household size, knowledge of waste management and household participation in waste separation. Results on drivers of household solid waste generation and variations across residential settlements could be utilised when designing growing cities’ waste management plans, with the objective of reducing the volume of solid waste sent to landfill sites, illegal dumping and open burning of waste, thus reducing the associated negative impacts that mismanaged waste poses to the environment. Enforcing waste separation at the household level could promote reuse and recycling, which in turn would reduce waste volumes. Keywords household waste generation; socio-economic drivers; residential density; refuse removal; waste types.

Sand mining and its associated activities serves as a source of livelihoods for entire communities whilst on the other hand it can trigger conflicts and violation of human rights. This study is aimed at assessing the socio-economic impacts caused by sand mining in the rural communities of the Wild Coast of South Africa. In order to achieve this aim, focus group discussions, transect walks, and questionnaires were used. The results of the study indicate that sand mining serves as a source of income to communities through the generation of jobs for both youths and adults. Unfortunately, it also triggers tensions between government officials and members of the community. A holistic approach in resource management is proposed.

Water security is one of the crucial global issues because of climate change. South Africa is a water scarce country and it is currently facing challenges in water provision, sanitation and supply. The aim of the study was to investigate how location affects the physico-chemical properties of water in the Matatiele Local Municipality. This was achieved by identifying water sources in three categories of location (rural, peri-urban and urban) which are mostly used and measuring their physico-chemical properties of water. They were measured using HACH 2100Q (V1.03/9) for turbidity and HQ40d (MULTI V2.3.0.730) for pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity in each of the water sources at each category. Within each category, six areas were randomly selected. ArcGIS (version10.3) was used to map the water sources. Chi-squared tests revealed that turbidity was significantly highest in rural areas, and lowest in urban areas. In wells, dams and rivers, turbidity was found to be out of WHO drinking water guidelines. Similarly, pH values were out of the WHO drinking water guidelines in wells for rural areas, tanks for urban areas and in springs and wells in the peri-urban areas. Dissolved oxygen and conductivity varied among the three categories with no clear patterns. These results highlight a need for the Department of Water and Sanitation authorities to give much attention to the water quality in rural and peri-urban areas.

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Increasing urbanization trends have seen natural ecosystems increasingly being replaced by urban development. Rapid rate of urban growth is causing social and environmental strains. The magnitude of the problem is partially reflected by the higher amount of solid waste generated. Consequently, common features of urban areas are stinking heaps of uncollected waste, waste disposed haphazardly by roadsides, open spaces, valleys, drains and rivers, non-compliance by waste disposal facilities. Spatial planning and environmental protection through rapidly growing population had influenced changes in ways at which waste was managed. The aim of this study was to identify the impact of waste management to the environment and communities in OR Tambo District Municipality. To achieve this, field observations and visits to local municipalities were conducted, water quality parameters (pH, Temperature, and Dissolved Oxygen) were measured on site using the Eutech Cyberscan series 600 portable water quality meter and water samples were taken to test for the concentration of nitrates and phosphates. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical analyses. Questionnaire surveys and interviews were conducted in schools and clinics adjacent to landfill sites to investigate community impacts and analysed using SPSS statistics 21. There were significant differences in dissolved oxygen and pH among sites in municipalities. There were challenges identified in communities with negative implications ranging from socially, environmentally and on health. These results highlight the need for waste minimisation,