Collaborating for a sustainable future

By Zingisa Mabangula
The Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality is in the grip of a prolonged drought which has disrupted life for residents, who are compelled to find innovative ways adapt, and EnviroServ Waste Management has joined arms with partners to seek solutions.

Rhodes University, through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Pathfinding project has initiated a collaborative platform to develop and share ideas on what should be done to preserve water. The ultimate goal is to avert day zero within the metro.

The project brings stakeholders of all levels including researchers and research participants together to creating pathways for sustainable development, particularly in the Swartkops catchment of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality. Government, non-governmental organisations, private sector, academia, and community members discuss sustainability challenges and potential solutions.

These collaborative gatherings are in the form of workshops, called Living Lab sessions, which provide an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss and find innovative strategies to solve societal problems. The series of workshops took place in July and November 2022, and again in June 2023. EnviroServ has participated in all sessions as a critical neighbour and stakeholder.

This project uses United Nations’ SDG framework as its theoretical guiding tool to guide both research and practice to achieve and enhance sustainability.

Zingisa Mabangula, EnviroServ’s Community Liaison Officer for the Eastern Cape region and Sue Alcock, EnviroServ Operations Manager at the Aloes facility have played an important role in the project. They have brought in a wealth of experience in stakeholder engagement and technical expertise.

This project has proved that a lot can be achieved through collaboration. This approach does not only open space for community voices to be heard, but regards them as sources of knowledge that can be harnessed to find solutions for sustainability problems. EnviroServ’s participation has been commended by the Rhodes University. “Industries have a critical role to play in the drought crisis and the presence of EnviroServ in the Living Labs workshops is immensely beneficial,” said Professor Nelson Odume of Rhodes University.