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NewsDay

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Demolish illegal structures: EMA

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THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has urged local authorities to deal with sprouting illegal suburbs where people are building on undesignated land.

THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has urged local authorities to deal with sprouting illegal suburbs where people are building on undesignated land.

BY OBEY MANAYITI

Many bogus housing co-operatives and land barons were parcelling out land to unsuspecting home seekers without following the laid-down regulations such as the compilation of the all-important Environmental Impact Assessment. EMA spokesperson Steady Kangata told NewsDay on the sidelines of belated World Environment Day commemorations at Mukai High School in Harare yesterday the mandate of the environment watchdog was limited.

He said it was the role of the Ministry of Local Government to deal with illegal dwellers through demolitions. Most of the illegal suburbs were being constructed on wetlands.

“As EMA, we support housing development, we need shelter, but it should be done in a proper way,” said Kangata. “We don’t have statistics of the illegal ones because we only keep the legal ones, but each time we do a survey we see the illegal ones coming up. However, one thing that we need to take note of on the Environment Act is that it is silent on demolitions.”

He added: “It doesn’t go to the extent of demolitions. There is a responsible ministry for this, which is the Ministry of Local Government. If they are leaving people in the areas we are talking about, then they are doing a disservice to the people.”

The World Environment Day event was organised by the Zimbabwe United Nations Association, which creates different clubs in various schools to disseminate information to the grassroots, addressing and promoting advocacy programmes towards the post-2015 Development Agenda.

Kangata urged people to exercise personal responsibility to promote the sustainable use of the environment. He urged people to reduce the use of plastic and polystyrene throwaway containers (kaylites).