Suburban
BORROWDALE residents have called for a probe into the broken down refuse trucks parked at the City of Harare’s mechanical workshop.
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
The call follows the recent splashing of pictures of the refuse trucks parked at the workshop during a visit by some councillors to assess the extent of the crisis facing the city’s waste collection department.
Residents want the City of Harare to establish what really happened to the vehicles, which are in a deplorable state while the municipality fails to collect rubbish from residential areas, business premises and public places.
Information gathered by this publication reveals that many of the refuse trucks at the mechanical workshop came to the workshop because they had either developed a problem which could be fixed or a minor fault which could be quickly repaired but ended up being grounded.
Now the refuse trucks are said to be missing more spares after being cannibalised during their long stay at the workshop. Some of the trucks no longer have tyres and other accessories.
In light of this development, Borrowdale residents have called on the authorities to update them on what really happened to the spare parts now missing which the vehicles came in with.
Commenting on the Ward 18 councillor’s platform, the residents questioned what really happened to the refuse trucks, with many querying if this could be a case of theft or corruption
“The police and anti-corruption authorities should be called in and investigate cases of theft against the entire workshop staff including the municipal police who presumably were responsible for security (at the workshop),” said a resident.
“It is also important for authorities to check if the engines are still there.
It’s probable that the trucks have no engines yet we thought it was only the tyres and a few other spares. Whoever was approving the cannibalising/breaking of the refuse trucks must be held accountable,” said another resident.
However, the Borrowdale Ratepayers and Residents Association (BRRA) executive committee member Mrs Pat Townsend seem to think the local authority was simply trying to keep the few refuse trucks available operational removing one or more spares on one vehicle and putting it on another to collect refuse.
“I don’t think it’s theft. They have taken spares, tyres and batteries from one vehicle for another until they all left in major state of disrepair,” she said.
Refuse collection efficiency has remained suppressed in Harare with the municipality failing to collect more than half of the garbage from residential and business premises in the capital city.
The shortage of refuse compactors has been cited as the major stumbling block to efficient garbage collection in Harare.
Ideally, the capital city should have 62 refuse compactors with an acceptable minimum availability of 30 trucks but the city has only eight at the moment.
Harare needs 13 skip trucks with an acceptable minimum availability of 10 but the municipality was having only three skip trucks in use on average as the other 10 were undergoing repairs.
The city must have two front end loaders to use in waste management with at least one expected to be available at all times but none were on the road as they were grounded in the workshops.
The scenario was the same with the tipper trucks as the city had none in operation versus an optimal number of five with a minimum of three expected to be in use. All the tipper trucks were said to be undergoing repairs.
“The refuse collection efficiency for the period under review stood below 50 percent.
“This mainly attributed to the low fleet availabilities experienced during the period under review,” reads the State of the Harare Metropolitan Province report covering the period from January to August 2021.
The report said the city needs one of each of the following equipment but currently does not have any: bulldozer, landfill compactor, front end loader, excavator, two 10m3 tipper and three 18m3 tippers.
The report suggested a number of measures to be immediately implemented to improve waste management in Harare.
These are:
• Scheduled door to door collections (blitz model better than conventional).
• Repair and maintenance of Amenities fleet to ensure availability of waste collection equipment.
• Short-To-Medium Term Measures
• Setting up Waste drop -off centres for recyclable waste in six identified
residential areas to minimise volumes of waste being transported. Engagements for land have since been initiated internally.
• Establishing and training Anti-Litter Monitors in residential areas to improve
Community ownership and enforcement.
• Complete the development of the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan
(ISWMP) for the City of Harare by October 2021 and implement the same thereafter
• Procurement of Equipment under Inter Governmental Funds transfer (IGFT). The following are at various stages of procurement:
• Landfill Compactor and landfill Dozer —Delivery expected December 2021 and February 2022 for compactor and dozer respectively
• 10 Refuse Compactors – At contract negotiation stage
• Three tipper trucks, excavator, front end loader at tender evaluation stage (with potential of adding more tippers)
• 40 Skip bins delivered
Long Term Measures
• Waste to energy implementation programme
• Capitalisation of the Department of Works Amenities Division with plant and
equipment
• Implementation of an Integrated Solid Waste Management System
• Engagement of citizens on culture change and environmental ownership.
The report identified three major challenges waste management and proffered suggestions to overcome the problems.
