The Western Cape has an estimated five years of landfill space left, while waste generation in the City of Cape Town grows at an average of about 7 percent a year, the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning has warned.

Addressing delegates at the Waste Minimisation Summit this week, MEC Anton Bredell said the province's landscape had to be considered to best understand how the limited resources could be used to effectively manage waste.

Pretoria - The Ekurhuleni Municipality has purchased a multi-million Rand dredging machine to rehabilitate its lakes, dams and wetlands which have deteriorated over time.

The Watermaster Classic III, which costs R7.5 million, is the first of its kind in Gauteng.

Known as the city of lakes, Ekurhuleni had faced numerous challenges with the state of its lakes recently.

A couple of month’s back I read an article titled ‘Sanitizers may boost bug growth’. Really? I am amazed, I thought, tongue in cheek!

This article was written about one particularly lovely bug that is thriving on an extremely strong sanitizer used in hospitals and the like, but I can't help experiencing a certain amount of amusement whenever I read these types of articles. Is the scientific arena worldwide living on a different planet to the rest of us? I ask because I think people with a couple of brain cells should have realised that we have come to the point of over-sanitisation.

Pretoria - A Welkom farmer has been arrested in connection with the illegal dumping of healthcare waste at a disused Harmony Gold mine.

The South African Police Services (SAPS) and the Green Scorpions or Environmental Management Inspectorate arrested the man who is also the owner of a brick manufacturing company on Monday.

Being an SA Brit with friends around the world, I have eclectic interests when it comes to receiving information. One of the notifications I receive is from the Natural History Museum in London, the latest being an invite to go to a talk on disappearing fish populations, aptly titled Has Fish had its Chips?

The title of the talk was clever and caught my eye. As these things do, it also set me thinking about us here in South Africa, since we have a huge coastline, are surrounded by huge oceans, and fishing is a big industry here – as are fish & seafood restaurants, particularly here in the Cape.

I know lots of people battle to spot them, but how many of you can say you have loads in your garden? I was one of those who could say that, but since these constant high winds – not anymore.  I blame it on the wind and not on the fact that I talked to them - of course.

When we moved into our house in Bothasig 10 years ago there was no garden. Well, there was one moth eaten guava tree whose sole aim seemed to be to drop tiny bullet hard fruit that played havoc with the lawn mower; dirty sand with patches of moth eaten grass, a succulent plant entwined with a basketball hoop and more cigarette ends than I have ever seen in my life - and I have worked in pubs and bars!

The Hansa Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon is set to take place at 6pm on Tuesday and the canoeists have been told they have little to fear from the two crocodiles that have been spotted recently in the area.

Steps have been taken to ensure the 1700 canoeists that will be paddling from Camp's Drift, Pietermaritzburg, to Blue Lagoon in Durban over the next three days won’t have a crocodile in their path.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesperson Jeff Gaisford said on Wednesday there was no sign of the crocodiles, which had been spotted at points along the lower reaches of the race path.

Three stories in the press over the last few weeks, have given South African’s unusual concerns about swimming off Cape Town’s beaches, surfing around the estuaries of Eastern Cape Rivers and canoeing in the Umgeni River.
Sharks Around Cape Town Beaches

A Zimbabwean man holidaying in Cape Town was killed, when he was attacked by what is believed to be a great white shark at Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town.

The Masvingo regional court has sentenced a member of the Mazhongwe rhino poaching gang to 17 years in prison for killing an endangered rhino.
Justice - at last: Zimbabwe rhino poacher Tichaona Mutyairi has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for killing a rhino and firing on police in October 2009.

After years of letting the killers walk free, could this case finally be the turning point in the war against rhino poaching in Zimbabwe?

A complete countrywide ban on fireworks and explosive devices was called for again by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) on Thursday. They released a statement that spoke of animals being euthanized because they did not recover from the trauma of the festive season.

"Others have died as a direct or indirect result of these explosions."

The SPCA said it was bearing the brunt of the lack of police enforcement.

Wildlife conservationists in Zimbabwe are struggling to protect endangered rhinos - and now the uphill battle includes war veterans who have gotten into the rhino poaching business.

In yet another setback to Zimbabwe’s wildlife conservation efforts, war veterans settled near the Humani Estates in the Chiredzi District are allegedly poisoning rhinos living on a nearby game reserve in order to sell the horns to South African rhino horn dealers.

Nelson Maponga, Humani Estate community spokesperson said via ZimEye that war veterans settled in the area have been killing rhinos with poisoned cabbage.

Canoeists training for the Dusi Conoe Marathon came across a dead dog strung up by its feet inside a mesh on Tuesday night on the Umgeni River in Durban, it was later established that it was a trap set by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife officers earlier that week to catch an elusive 2 metre crocodile.

The Animal rights authorities are outraged and have called this act indecent.

Jeff Gaisford, the Ezemvelo spokesman, said the dog had been found on the side of the road by crocodile expert Mark Robertson.