The Sunday News
Thupeyo Muleya
IT is around midday in the border town of Beitbridge, Tendai (not real name) and two other friends are busy cleaning vehicles at a car wash in Dulivhadzimu Township.
Soon after getting paid by several clients, they take a break and then rush to a close business centre, where they buy 12 pints of relatively cheap imported Black Label beer and isitshwala with beef.
The meal is packed in three kay-lite containers.
They carry their food and beer back to their workplace. They start eating and then wash down the food with the “wise waters” as they wait for more clients.
A few minutes later they throw away the disposable empties and food containers in all directions oblivious of the littering they are causing around the town.
During that process two more youthful men arrive in sleek cars. They get off and empty all the litter from their cars and throw it away like Tendai and his friends.
After having their cars cleaned they drive away.
While Tendai and his colleagues are enjoying their meals and beer, further afield in the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai suburb, a woman with a baby strapped to her back is throwing used diapers into the Wamlala stream next to two young boys relieving themselves on the shores of the same stream.
The area around Hlalani Kuhle is not serviced. It has no water and sewer system hence residents have resorted to relieving themselves on the banks of the stream which flows all the way to the mighty Limpopo River.
In three days’ time the area around the car wash and the Wamlala stream is littered with solid waste including empty beer bottles, kay-lites, diapers and human waste.
Such actions by Tendai, his clients, the woman throwing diapers and the two boys relieving themselves on the banks of the stream has resulted in extensive littering in Beitbridge town.
The situation has also been worsened by the Beitbridge Town Council (BTC)’s incompetency on issues around refuse collection. The current refuse collection system is not very reliable.
Being the busiest port, the population around Beitbridge has been growing with almost thousands of people per year.
Around 2013 the town had close to 42 000 people but that has increased to around 60 000 due to the town’s economic activity and proximity to South Africa.
A further 12 000 transit population use the border on a daily basis.
The town secretary, Mr Loud Ramakgapola, said recently they were working on at least 700 tonnes of solid waste per month.
He said they were seized with the issues of littering around the town and major highways leading to Bulawayo and Harare.
Mr Ramakgapola added that they had launched an annual mayor’s half marathon to raise awareness on sanitation issues.
The initiative involves a 20km road race which starts at Lutumba Business Centre and ends in the CBD.
Said Mr Ramakgapola; “During the race we will have people cleaning up the highways and most litter hotspots while others will run against litter.
“It is important that we pull in one direction as stakeholders if we are to achieve our set target.
“In this year’s edition that will be held on 29 July we are expecting over 300 athletes. Prior to the race we will have a clean-up programme around the town and the major roads.”
BTC chairperson Councillor Showa Moyo says currently the town has 300 street bins against target of 500.
She said they have been engaging a number of partners with a view of improving environmental management systems in the town.
The town chairperson said they had close to 300 bins in the town and more would be installed in the CBD and along the highway.
“We are appealing to development partners to assist us in constructing communal bins in the suburbs and at business centres.
“It is also important that we engage each other with a shared vision with others with like minds so that we can move in one direction,” she said.
Clr Moyo added that recently they received a donation of 100 bins from TelOne, which have since been installed around the CBD and along the major highways.
She said the local authority was seized with issues of littering adding that they would continue planning on more strategies to ensure they improve on environmental management.
“We have a problem with littering of mainly disposable beer bottles and cans. These are common and are imported from Musina, South Africa which is our closest town,” said the chairperson.
The Environmental Management Authority (Ema) has also scaled up efforts to manage littering in port and mining towns.
A fortnight ago they jointly held an anti-litter march with BTC and various stakeholders with a view to increasing participation in environmental management.
Ema board spokesperson Mr Felix Moyo said the allocation of unserviced housing stands to people had caused a health hazard in urban centres.
Said Mr Moyo: “We have advised the Beitbridge Town Council and other urban councils not to allow land development before the area is serviced or without proper sanitary facilities.
“Allowing habitation on undeveloped land increases littering and in most cases this comes with a lot of health hazards”.
He said they were equally worried about the state of affairs in most areas where people have settled on unserviced land.
Mr Moyo said Ema was rolling out a number of anti-littering campaigns in most hotspots which include highways, mining and border towns.
He also said they were looking at mobilising resources that would help in capacitating local authorities on issues relating to environmental management.
“We have targeted Beitbridge town for the anti-littering campaigns considering that it is the face of Zimbabwe to those people accessing the country from South Africa.
“Further, you will note that this is one of the busiest inland ports in Southern Africa, where we have a daily transit population of 12 000.
“This then calls for us to scale up our efforts on issues of effective environmental management,” he said.
Mr Moyo added that a clean environment attracts investors and hence the importance of sprucing up the face of ports of entry.
He said they were concerned with solid waste management and littering mainly of beer cans, bottle, and airtime vouchers and kay-lites.
“Our neighbours are clean but here in the country there is a lot of littering. The other reason why we chose Beitbridge is that there was an early warning on heavy rains in the country.
“Previously Beitbridge experienced an outbreak of cholera and that made us come here to avert a repeat of that. However, we are happy that our awareness campaigns have paid dividends,” said Mr Moyo.
It’s high time Ema sets aside resources to capacitate local authorities in port and mining towns which will help fund environmental management issues.
Further, BTC must review its refuse collection policy which has resulted in the mushrooming of illegal dumpsites in the high density suburbs.
In addition the local authority must come up with by-laws which will help them to deal with litter bug.
Ema must also descend hard on litter bugs otherwise their dream for a clean environment in Beitbridge will remain elusive.
FEEDBACK: [email protected]
