Masvingo City Council to move to new landfill

Sharon Chimenya, Masvingo Correspondent
MASVINGO City Council has said plans are afoot to move to the new landfill that is under construction amid revelations that the old dumpsite was at the mercy of fires started by homeless people, some of whom reside in suburbs close to it.

The old dumpsite which is set to be decommissioned by the end of this month has been encircled by the fast-growing high-density suburbs of Victoria Ranch and Runyararo West and is a menace to the health of the residents because of the fires started by vagrants, smoke and air pollution.

Speaking during a full council meeting, the Masvingo City Town Clerk, Engineer

said to help avert the fire eruption at the site during the peak of the fire season the local authority had heaped gravel at the site which would also be used during decommissioning.

“We have put gravel at the dumpsite to help deal with fires that erupt at the site. There have been incidents of vagrants who have been starting these fires and we have been using the gravel to put out the fires and control their spreading. This has contributed to us recording less fires. We have also put the gravel at the dumpsite in preparation of the decommissioning.”

After a number of false starts, Masvingo City Council finally secured 10 hectares of land on Cambria Farm which is on the western outskirts of the city for the establishment of the new landfill in 2019 and is set to move there by the end of October.

Responding to questions on when the local authority will move to the new site, Acting City Engineer Kudzaishe Mbetu, said they were left with the construction of the site offices which was already underway. He said they were going to start using the landfill at the end of the month, adding that three boreholes had been drilled but only the control borehole had been equipped so far.

“We will be moving to the new landfill this year, before the end of this month we will be dumping at the new site. We are left with the roofing of offices for the staff who will be residing at the landfill manning the station,” he said.

Masvingo Mayor Councillor Collen Maboke urged the engineering department to see to it that fire eruptions at the old dumpsite were minimised while preparations were underway to decommission it and move to the new landfill site.