The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter
THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has reportedly ordered the Bulawayo City Council to immediately clear dumps that have been accumulating in Makokoba, posing a health hazard to residents.
Residents in the suburb have been sitting on a health time-bomb, with effluent flowing from burst pipes into their homes, leaving them prone to water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. The local authority has also been failing to render effective service resulting in unattended sewer pipe bursts and uncollected garbage in the city centre and residential areas.
Speaking during a corruption indaba organised by Transparency International Zimbabwe, BCC director of health services, Dr Edwin Sibanda revealed that council had received the warning on Thursday morning.
“Before I left the office in the morning today (Thursday) I received a warning letter from EMA ordering us to clear the waste in Makokoba. When you look at that suburb there are a lot of industries and they dump their offcuts anywhere, resulting in us getting this warning, most of the waste in Makokoba is not domestic.
“This then goes to show us that it is us as residents who are not being considerate and instead practice such behaviours which can go on to affect our very own health, we really must relook our standard of living and shun such,” said Dr Sibanda.
He said the culture of dumping waste everywhere had now turned into an epidemic in the city hence the need for the local authority to up its efforts of enforcing the bylaws.
