‘Arrest bus crews dumping waste’

INDISCRIMINATE dumping of solid waste by bus crews at Kambendekela House near Lusaka Inter-city Bus Station is making the area dirty despite the premises being regularly swept by the city council and that culprits should be arrested.

And despite the Lusaka City Council banning the parking of buses on a road reserve along Dedani Kimathi road due to enormous challenges experienced by the public health department to keep the area clean, the practice has continued with buses being parked all over the place.

The council said several long distance buses parked along the road at Kambendekela House, Industrial Relations Court building and near Zambia Railways Lusaka Station for long hours during which cleaning and washing of buses were done.

The dirt and solid waste from the washing and cleaning of the buses was indiscriminately dumped along the road or near the buildings, and some of the garbage was blocking drainages.

Ms Mary Nkandu, a business woman from Solwezi, said the indiscriminate dumping of solid waste removed from the buses had resulted in the area looking dirty despite the place being regularly swept by the council.

Ms Nkandu said despite the council banning the parking of buses along the road reserve some bus operators and traders had continued dumping refuse with impunity.

“The garbage here is being dumped by some bus drivers and traders around this place and now it is accumulating and posing a danger which can lead to an (disease) outbreak,’ Ms Nkandu said.

Another business woman Joyce Mwanakamba from Sesheke said there was need for drivers and the general public to exercise cleanliness by dumping waste in designated areas.

She said the Lusaka Intercity Bus Terminus was a busy place because hundreds of travelers were using the same facility, therefore it needed to be tidy and clean all the time to avoid outbreaks of disease.

Ms Mwanakamba called on the local authority to summon bus drivers defying the council’s directive on the packing of the buses and warn them or take action against them.

She called on the council to start arresting drivers dumping garbage indiscriminately around the bus station disregarding bins and containers provided for the purpose.