GWERU City Council is still to identify land for a new refuse dumpsite more than A year after the local authority said it was working on modalities to decommission the one in Woodlands suburb, a senior council official has revealed.
BY STEPHEN CHADENGA
Town clerk, Elizabeth Gwatipedza said the government was yet to identify land for the dumpsite after previous sites had been condemned as unsuitable.
“The ministry of Lands is yet to identify land for the relocation of the dumpsite,” she said during a recent tour of council projects.
“Previously, there was one which had been identified along Matobo Road, but we discovered the type of soil was not suitable for a landfill.
“Then there was another that had been identified more than 30km away from the city, but we had to consider the costs associated with transporting refuse to such a distance.”
Gwatipedza said besides the hurdles council was facing in identifying a new dumpsite, the cost of constructing a standard landfill ran into millions of dollars. She said council had to include funds for the setting up of a refuse landfill in next year’s budget.
The dumpsite in Woodlands was condemned years back after it was discovered that it was endangering residents’ lives, since it was situated near houses.
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Meanwhile, city engineer Robson Manatsa said houses in Woodlands were constructed without the land developer offering an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to the local authority.
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) environmental impact and ecosystems protection officer for Midlands, Phanuel Kudakwashe Mangisi concurred saying, EMA had also not seen the EIA for both Woodlands phase one and two projects.
Investigations by this paper showed that the housing project was heavily politicised by Zanu PF top officials, rendering the local authority powerless.
