Adam Hartman
11 April 2008
Windhoek — An estimated 10 000 litres of engine oil illegally dumped at the Walvis Bay Municipal dumpsite recently have formed a large pool, raising concerns over the environmental impact.
A local businessman who went to the dump to purchase recycled material last week, Ismael Kasuto, told The Namibian that he noticed a large section of oily soil, and after closer inspection, came upon a "large, deep black pool of thick oil".
He took some photos and forwarded it to The Namibian.
"I'm just a layman, although I'm certain that oil cannot just be dumped like this.
It should be processed," he said.
David Uushona of the Walvis Bay Municipality's Environment and Waste Department said the incident was "unacceptable" and that the matter would be investigated.
He explained that oil was sprayed on the dump regularly to compact the top layer of soil in order to prevent wind from blowing the dump's dust all over the place.
He said the damming of oil at the site was another matter, since large quantities had evidently been dumped there without permission.
"This is not acceptable.
An incident report will be compiled and someone has to be held accountable, be it internally or externally," he told The Namibian.
"We also want to thank the member of the public who brought this to our attention."
He said whoever was responsible for the pollution would be required to clean it up, and measures would be put into place to avoid a recurrence.
Anton Pretorius, CEO of Wesco Group in Walvis Bay - the only company in Namibia responsible for recycling oil - said he was not aware of the dumping of oil at the dump.
He acknowledged that his company, with the authorisation of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, disposed of heavy fuel oil (HFO), which is used in ships, and drilling mud, used as a drilling coolant on oil rigs, at the Walvis Bay rubbish dump.
He said HFO was one of the oils that could not be recycled in Namibia, but the Ministry had given Wesco a window period to find ways to break the substance down into recyclable material.
He said in the meantime, it was sprayed over sections of the dump for "dune stabilisation", which is useful for land filling.
He said strict procedures were followed and all operations were logged in order to stay in line with Government's requirements.
After inspecting the site where the oil was dumped, he said the pool consisted of an estimated 10 000 litres of engine oil.
He volunteered to clean it up and recycle it at Wesco.
He said it was still a mystery who had dumped the oil there illegally.
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