The Sunday News
Sharon Chimenya, Masvingo Correspondent
IN 2018 President Mnangagwa launched the national clean-up programme – a first of its kind to be done by the Head of State and to be followed with detailed discipline where every first Friday of the month is dedicated to ensuring that the environment is clean from 8am to 10am.
The initiative is meant to boost and promote a culture of increased cleanliness across the various cities and towns with corporates encouraged to venture into recycling initiatives to derive economic value from waste.
As the country celebrates the third anniversary since the declaration of the national clean-up campaign it is important that individuals, communities, corporates take a step further and invest in waste management initiatives.
However, it has emerged that some major cities and local authorities in the country are having challenges in their management of waste and have not been regularly collecting refuse leading to some residents throwing litter at undesignated areas despite the education and awareness.
According to the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) 2020 Urban Livelihoods Assessment about 22 percent of the urban dwellers dumped their litter at undesignated places.
“When refuse is not collected by local authorities, residents often find ways of disposing it, both approved and not approved. Nationally, 34 percent of households bury their uncollected refuse while 22 percent dumped it in undesignated areas.
“Nationally, 31 percent of households reported that refuse was never collected in the month preceding the survey. Mashonaland Central at 76 percent had the highest proportion of households which reported that refuse was never collected. In Bulawayo 79 percent, had the highest proportion of households that reported that collection of refuse was done four times during the specified period,” read part of the report.
With much of the products being packaged using plastic, more and more waste is choking the environment hence the need to take the clean-up initiative beyond the broom and practise waste management initiatives in which plastic waste can be turned into valuable products that will create more jobs in the country.
In the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) the Government said through incentives it was promoting ventures which convert plastic waste into recycled plastic products.
In ensuring a better environment the recycling activities will help empower communities.
“Plastic waste can be turned into valuable manufactured products and create value chains, new jobs, a better environment, generate tax revenues and savings on imports. Zimbabwe has an underdeveloped petrochemical industry, which ordinarily emerges from oil or gas refineries.
“As a result, the country imports large volumes of polymers used in the manufacture of plastic packaging materials, chemicals and resins for the manufacture of various plastic based products. In the same vein, Zimbabwe disposes significant volumes of plastic waste every year, which are not biodegradable.
“During the NDS1, Government will promote ventures which convert plastic waste into recycled plastic products through targeted incentives. In addition, the recycled plastic materials will also be used to manufacture other high value products such as housing for LED lighting bulbs. These measures will reduce imports of plastic granules which are widely used by the local industry, create employment opportunities and stimulate sub-sector manufacturing entities,” read part of the NDS1 blueprint.
Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga during a clean-up campaign in Masvingo last month implored the corporate world to tap into recycling industry for some revenue. He urged people to fully embrace the waste management practices.
“I urge you to utilise waste material in a positive way by investing in waste management projects as a means of uplifting livelihoods in the communities and the country at large. I want to implore upon the business community to invest resources in waste recycling enterprises.
“Instead of exporting recyclables lets create employment by having more of our own recycling companies that have capacity to produce finished products,” he said.
He said while the idea of clean environments was plausible and part of the national clean-up campaign initiative’s objectives, the discourse should move a gear up and change from merely removing waste and throwing it away to the idea of grading it and make use of it to improve livelihoods and value add on it so that it can be economically viable.
It was also noted that while more emphasis has been placed on the traditional collection of waste, the principles of integrated solid waste management have not been fully followed by most local authorities.
The poor performance of urban councils on solid waste management has a great impact on the quality of scarce surface and groundwater resources, human health and the environment in Zimbabwe and there is a need for improvement in that area to prevent diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
