By Farai Matiashe
THE Evironmental Management Agency (EMA) yesterday urged local authorities to collect waste in the country’s central business districts and in residential areas to discourage residents from dumping rubbish at undesignated sites.
Residents and companies in most cities and towns around the country have been dumping garbage at undesignated places arguing that the responsible authorities were inconsistent in collecting the waste.
“As EMA, we are encouraging local authorities to collect waste as per their waste collection schedules and dump waste in lined standard sanitary landfills,” Amkela Sidange, EMA environmental education and publicity manager, said at a media briefing in Harare yesterday.
“We urge local authorities to ensure there is prosecution of those who deliberately continue littering and dumping waste at undesignated places,” Sidange said.
She revealed that the national clean-up campaign, which was launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year, was a milestone achievement in the history of waste management in the country.
“Over 20 000 clean-ups have been carried out across the country ever since the launch of the programme. The education sector contributes over 60% to the national statistics, in the true meaning of the ‘catch them young’ cliche,” Sidange said.
“To date the national clean-up programme has registered participation of 786 stakeholders from as low as 73 in January 2019, among them, but not limited to, the corporate sector, religious fraternity, government institutions, parastatals and foreign nationals resident in the country.”
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She said running under the banner Independence clean-up special, the April national clean-up day collected 32 094,66m3 of waste from a previous highest of 9 672,23m3 in March and urged all citizens to embrace the clean-up programme from household to institutional level.
Sidange called on citizens to play a part in waste management by recycling products to reduce the use of new raw materials and the accumulation of waste in the environment.
Statistics from EMA indicated that Zimbabwe generates around 1,65 million tonnes of solid waste annually and it is projected that by 2030, waste generated annually would surpass five million tonnes.
