Poor refuse collection concern for Harare residents

The collection of refuse in Harare has become extinct.

GARBAGE has piled up in the streets of the CBD and various residential areas, presenting citizens of the capital with a potential health hazard. With the city reporting that rates arrears have ballooned to $700 million the crisis that Harare City Council faces does not look like it will be alleviated soon.

Queries have been raised by residents over the lucidity of paying rents when there is poor service delivery which results in outbreaks of diseases endangering the lives.

Raviro Muchenje (44), a resident from Tafara said she no longer relies on refuse collection trucks to come and has sought other solutions.

“I used to wait for the garbage trucks to come long back when they were reliable, but now I am disillusioned by the way council is operating. We now have our own dumping site though it is illegal.

“I have always been one to pay my council dues but it hasn’t been beneficial because the service delivery is poor. This begs the question whether I should continue paying,” she said.

Mrs Muchenje said the issue of poor refuse collection was citywide and a looming health risk.

“In areas like Greendale, Westgate, Marlborough, Mt Pleasant, Mabelreign and other suburbs, residents were discarding garbage close to houses and unfinished buildings.

“The situation is worse in high density suburbs such as Glen Norah, Glen View, Warren Park, Waterfalls, Mabvuku, Kambuzuma and Budiriro. Looking at the population density of these areas one can note that a health disaster is prone because spreading of diseases will be faster,” Mrs Muchenje added.

Mabvuku resident, Calvin Mtema (20) bemoaned the state of the environment in his area and was saddened by a city council which seems to have given up.

“You cannot eat or talk whilst walking past some streets because of the stench that is in the air. People are dumping garbage everywhere.

“The environment is suffering and we are worried that we will be exposed to disease outbreaks or one day I might wakeup with garbage on my doorstep,” said Mr Mtema.

Mr Mtema sympathised with council due to the fact that residents had absconded on they duty to pay rates. He however implored them to find a workable solution as service delivery was of the utmost importance.

“It is possible that council is failing to collect refuse due to lack of finances to service the trucks and pay the drivers of the trucks.

“It is said that residents owe council more than $700 million and this is could be a reason why city council is facing these challenges.

“If residents comply with the laws, it will not be difficult to contain garbage. The fact that some residents are not paying rates is affecting the compliant members which calls for urgent action before the compliant members join the band wagon of not paying as well furthering the debt situation,” he said.

Greendale resident, Shamiso Garwe expressed how her residential area was slowly turning into a garbage pit.

“The plastic bins that we used to be given are not being issued anymore such that people have to buy their own. In addition to that, trucks that collect garbage are not operational and so people pile garbage bags at their gates till it turns to a huge heap of trash.

“At the end of the day other people come and drop their own bags at the same heap causing there to be a disgusting odour, flies and maggots lying all over the place,” she said.

She suggested that the matter be looked into as a matter of urgency.

“Council has to work hard in improving its service delivery; it is not healthy or safe for people to live in this manner.

“There is supposed to be a strong relationship between council and us the residents but because of the current situation in my area, the residents are unhappy and the relationship has turned very sour,” she said.

According to Mrs Garwe, council garbage collectors are to blame for the piling up of refuse in the streets.

“When the garbage collectors come they do not empty the bin, they carry it along and never return it. I don’t blame residents for dumping garbage anywhere

— possible because where do they expect us to store our garbage?” she asked.

In Warren Park 1 refuse collection had improved but residents were unsure about how the new system was to work particularly on who was to provide the plastic bins

Mrs Josephine Tafirenyika, a resident of Warren Park 1 said there needed to be explanation on how the processes worked.

“In my neighbourhood, refuse has been collected under new system for three weeks now.

“First week was fine; they came, picked up refuse and gave us plastic bins since they had taken the ones we had. They just put refuse in sacks.

“The following week they came again on Friday, took our bins and never replaced them saying another car behind them would drop off the bins but he car never came.

“Last week they came again, took bins we had bought and never replaced them. Instead said we should go to council to get bins.

“The question now is how does this system really works because most residents are confused as to who should replace the bins and after how long.” said Mrs Tafirenyika.

Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba said there is inconsistency in refuse collection in communities.

“Refuse collection is inconsistent in most communities, and the quality of water has not improved to the satisfaction of residents.

“The water has visible impurities, and leakages along the distribution network worry the residents a lot because most of the times they do not have the water to use in their households.

“The City of Harare has not explained or justified why they have failed to regularly collect household garbage in line with their own given schedules,” he said.

He advised Harare city council to put in place a maintenance and repair schedule for refuse trucks to avoid cases of them not functioning as expected.

“The purchase of new vehicles, without putting in place a clear maintenance and repairs schedule for the refuse collection trucks will find them grounded in less than six months, and the cycle of garbage piling across the suburbs will continue.

“The other major challenge faced by Harare residents is the failure by the city management and councillors as duty bearers to recognise the socio-economic rights enshrined in the Constitution. There is failure to genuinely engage.

“The City is more comfortable splitting the stakeholders by inviting small groups of people to meet the different managers. The idea being pursued is to evade scrutiny by all stakeholders at once.

“Their divisive strategy of putting different stakeholders into silos is designed to control and manage information sharing,” Mr Shumba said.

The result has been that the different stakeholders are given contradictory and inconsistent information. It appears the city is afraid of being held accountable.

Calls for council have to be transparent and accountable are growing louder by the day for a good relationship between them and the residents to be established.

“The solution lies in the council becoming more transparent and accountable in their release of public information. The residents’ loss of confidence in the Council is premised on the rigidity of the council management. They have to stop being reluctant and concentrate on service delivery,” he added.

Earlier this week Harare City Council commissioned refuse trucks and road maintenance equipment bought under the $30 million loan facility accessed from local banks for recapitalisation.

Maintenance equipment bought were 30 refuse compactors from one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturing companies, FAW Group Corporation, for $3,1 million and the first nine trucks were delivered, together with five rollers worth $546 000.

In addition, 10 skip trucks, 10 tipper trucks, three graders, one chip spreader, one jet patcher, 25 utility trucks and the outstanding compactors, were said to be at various stages of delivery.

Harare mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni said brand Harare had been suffering because of uncollected garbage and bad roads, but the city was on a mission to revive it through reigniting the sunshine city status.

“The refuse equipment delivered so far consists of six 20-tonner compactors and three 12-tonners,” he said. “As you are noticing, we have increased the tonnage of our trucks because we want to increase the amount of waste we cart to the dump site, thereby reduce the number of trips to Pomona (dump site).

“These trucks will be deployed to the zones and will be managed by our zonal teams, together with the communities serviced by the trucks. These trucks belong to the residents, implying that there should be strictly community policing against abuse of these assets,” he said.

In addition to refuse collection it would be good for citizens of the capital to encourage recycling, composting and reusing to reduce the amount of waste being disposed.