The Sunday News
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has embarked on a community refuse collection programme which will see the local authority use vehicles owned by community members to collect refuse in residential areas.
This comes amid concerns over an increase in illegal dumpsites in residential areas in the city, largely due to failure by council to regularly collect refuse.
The programme is being piloted in Emganwini high density suburb and will be spread to other areas that have also been earmarked for piloting before it is rolled out at full scale across all residential areas in the city.
Under the programme council will use privately owned pick-up trucks to collect refuse from the residents’ door steps to a collection point where a refuse compactor will be waiting.
BCC public relations officer Miss Bongiwe Ngwenya told Sunday News last week that council would pay residents who would have provided their vehicles for refuse collection.
She said the idea to engage members of the community to render their vehicles was aimed at addressing challenges by the local authority in collecting refuse due to a depleted fleet of refuse collection trucks.
Residents will also be regularly supplied with refuse bags to place their garbage before placing the bags outside their houses for collection on scheduled days.
“The current fleet of refuse removal vehicles is inadequate and aged hence it cannot cope with the demands of the city. In face of the constrained resources there was need for the city to look at alternative ways of continued service provision and thus engaged in this form of Public Private partnership.
“Furthermore, with this programme council aims at improving the frequency of refuse collection in the high density areas from fortnightly to weekly.
“The programme will initially be rolled to other suburbs (Nketa, Nkulumane and Pumula South) earmarked for piloting. An assessment after the pilot will inform the next steps,” she said.
Bulawayo City Council is operating with a depleted fleet of refuse compactor vehicles with about 10 compactors working on a given day instead of the ideal 21.
Miss Ngwenya said some residents were retarding council efforts to collect refuse by not placing their garbage outside for collection on scheduled days, a development she said had contributed to illegal dumpsites emerging in most residential areas.
She said failure by some residents to pay their bills with the local authority was also contributing to the local authority’s failure to efficiently deliver its mandate.
“Some residents only take their refuse out after refuse collection vehicles have passed their houses. Residents are requested to place their refuse outside their gates early in the morning because refuse collecting crews start collecting as from 6am.
“Some residents despite Council’s efforts to collect refuse on scheduled days still have a tendency of dumping their refuse.
“Failure by some residents to honour their monthly financial obligations negatively impacts on service delivery,” she said.
The community refuse collection programme comes on the back of EMA revealing that it would soon start night raids on, and prosecuting, residents who dump litter at undesignated areas.
EMA provincial manager for Bulawayo metropolitan province Mr Decent Ndlovu told journalists that EMA had established that some residents were illegally dumping waste during the night to evade arrest, an observation he said prompted the agency to consider conducting night raids in the affected areas.
“We are now going to ambush residents at night to contain the increase in illegal dumpsites. What we have observed is that most of the dumping is done during the night and the only way we can catch the perpetrators is to carry out raids during the night.
“If we catch anyone dumping waste at undesignated areas we will not hesitate applying the law. We might even detain whoever we catch as we would want to mete out the most deterrent punishment available. We can also fine them or take them to court if they fail to pay the fine,” he said.
Mr Ndlovu said the city continued to witness an increase in illegal dumpsites, with Entumbane high-density suburb ranking as the dirtiest residential area in the city.
Other suburbs that, according to EMA, have poor solid waste management records and were among the dirtiest areas in the city include Cowdray Park, Makokoba and Emakhandeni.
Suburbs considered by EMA as cleanest in the city, with sound waste management programmes include Sizinda, Nkulumane, and Emganwini.
Mr Ndlovu commended efforts by Bulawayo City Council to clear illegal dumpsites around the city suburbs, adding that after the dumpsites have been cleared council should contain re-emergence of the dumpsites by regularly collecting refuse.
