Mandara organises community clean-up campaign

Suburban Reporter

Mandara residents will hold a clean-up campaign in the suburb on Saturday, December 7, 2024 to create a cleaner and greener community.

A notice shared on the suburb’s residents’ online platforms, invites residents of the suburb to the clean-up to be held at Mandara Shopping Centre and around the neighbourhood.

“Marvelous Mandara, let’s clean up our neighbourhood. Let’s create a cleaner and greener community together. Join us at Mandara Shops or grab a bin bag and clean around your area. Take before and after pictures and share with the community,” reads the notice.

The notice said all residents were welcome to take part in the clean-up which is scheduled for two hours between 08:00 am and 10:00 am.

“Join us for the Neighbourhood Clean-up Day! This is our chance to maintain and beautify our neighbourhood.”

Those willing to help with materials for the clean-up campaign can get hold of Kim on 0772100019 for donations of bin bags, gloves, water or money.

Residents welcomed the initiative saying it was badly needed to deal with mounds of rubbish found all over the suburb’s open spaces and roadsides.

Some residents also suggested to the organisers that they gather around the eyesore spots in the suburb while others said those willing to participate could do whatever area they were comfortable with. Requests were made for residents to advise other areas that community members would like to work on.

Some residents excused themselves saying they would have wanted to be part of the initiative but had other commitments. However, they indicated that they would send their workers to join the community effort. Residents also sought to know how the collected litter would be disposed of and were advised that a plan was underway to get the City of Harare to come and collect the filled bin bags. The organisers also requested volunteers to try and keep plastic bottles in separate bags so they can be taken for recycling.

The discussion also heard that through the Mandara Association of Residents and Ratepayers, the Mandara community could start looking at ways to completely eliminate the illegal dumping problem.

One strategy suggested was using a gradual approach to engage the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) for some volunteers to patrol the area and bring to book culprits found littering and polluting the neighbourhood.

In addition, residents could also pool resources to install cameras at designated places to catch litterbugs.

One resident said they lived close to an open space and it had become unbearable to control the rampant dumping in front of their yard. Naming and shaming of culprits including publicising their addresses were put forward as another strategy for preventing littering because some of the litterbugs were helpers and caretakers employed by residents but sometimes the employers never get to know that their workers are part of the offenders.

Another group of residents was of the view that while cleaning up the area was good, it might not be sustainable, and looking at ways of eradicating the habit of dumping litter everywhere might be the solution. They said the source of the problem also needed to be interrogated because some of them had been doing clean-ups and even cutting grass around but the more they cleaned the more the dumping occurred.

As the discussion went on about Saturday’s clean-up campaign, residents were informed that four truckloads of rubble were dumped on Eastern and Babbacombe Roads sometime last week, exposing the gravity of the problem.