Suburban
PLANS are underway to establish a waste sorting centre in Ward 8 where residents can drop their rubbish when the City of Harare is not able to do door to door collections.
Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter
Ward 8 Councillor Keith Charumbira told Suburban that the waste sorting centre will be built along Boundary Road in Highlands to serve residents of the ward.
Ward 8 covers Chisipite, Highlands, Newlands, Ballantyne Park and The Grange among other suburbs.
Cllr Charumbira said there were cases of residents who are dumping rubbish at shopping centres because refuse collection had collapsed in the city.
He said the waste selection centre should help prevent the dumping of rubbish at shopping centres.
Cllr Charumbira said the waste selection centre will be responsible for selecting recyclable materials leaving non-recyclables to be taken to Pomona dumpsite.
“Currently, we are at the planning stage and we are supposed to develop it so that we do it effectively.
“So we are going to push it very hard because we want to avoid such a (refuse collection) disaster.
“We don’t want a chaos of uncollected refuse,” he said.
In a related matter, Harare East legislator Mr Tendai Biti last Friday organised a clean-up of Chisipite shopping centre where rubbish has been piling up for months with the City of Harare failing to collect the waste.
Last month, Mr Biti organised another clean up at Kamfinsa shopping centre in Greendale to clear litter scattered at the shops.
Earlier in April, the Zanu PF District Co-ordinating Committee 4, business owners and stakeholders at Kamfinsa shops had also conducted another clean up as a way of complementing the monthly clean-up campaign introduced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
At Kamfinsa, Greendale residents were also dumping garbage at the shopping centre due to non-collection by the municipality.
Cllr Charumbira said Chisipite shopping centre was having serious dirt caused by piling rubbish.
“So we have come here to clean these dumps with my MP (Tendai Biti) who participated very much in terms of helping us so that we remove the dumps at Chisipite which we have cleared right now,” he said.
Cllr Charumbira urged residents to manage their litter as the city is facing challenges in refuse collection.
“All our refuse trucks (for the whole of Harare) have been down except for a few. Around four trucks have been working so refuse has not been collected for a long period of time in this ward.
“So we are trying to do it ourselves but not to mean to say we will continue to do it as citizens because council must be taking charge in terms of refuse collection.
“I understand there are various mechanisms taking place to ensure refuse is collected efficiently and effectively within our community,” he said.
Cllr Charumbira thanked Mr Biti for the dump clearing exercise.
“I want to thank the work done by the MP and volunteers here today but council has the capacity to revamp itself and ensure we push for refuse collection in terms of our budgets.
“We should ensure that refuse collection is key because it is a health hazard to keep refuse like this, rotten things like this that have gone for months without being collected. It should not be something we see in Harare,” he said.
Cllr Charumbira said there is another dump at Highlands district office that he is working to clear.
He said some private refuse collectors are collecting garbage due to failure by council to effectively collect rubbish.
“We are making sure we put all the mechanisms in place to ensure that we restore refuse collection.
“We apologise to citizens of my ward for failure by the City of Harare to collect refuse,” said Clr Charumbira.
He said the Ward 8 compactor is among those that are down and at the council workshop.
“There are around 55 to 61 refuse trucks but only around three or four are working.
“So we are working on the modalities to ensure there is rapid and regular maintenance of refuse trucks and our truck is decentralised so that we have effective refuse collection in the ward,” said Cllr Charumbira.
He the Ward 8 truck does not need major repairs proving that council was leaving some of the compactors to rot yet they needed minor repairs.
He said he did not have a quotation for the repairs required for the truck.
“It doesn’t even cost much.
“They are saying it requires lifters to ensure the hydraulics move. So it is a matter of priorities that we should push for the proper prioritisation by council. Spares that are regularly used for the maintenance of our refuse trucks should always be available at our workshops,” said Cllr Charumbira.
“We want to manage litter because we don’t want a health hazard in our community.
“We want a clean and healthy environment,” he said.
