Two centres break the litter barrier
BULAWAYO and Victoria Falls are breaking through the “litter barrier” with both described as “commendably clean” by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), although the rest of the country is still to make the required fundamental behavioural change and their residents still trail litter as they drive or walk.
Yesterday was the 11th monthly national clean-up exercise, started by President Mnangagwa almost a year ago to highlight the need not to create the mess in the first place.
A large number of teams were still collecting litter, showing that cultural change is still slow, at least outside Bulawayo, which has always had a high level of civic pride and places a premium on being better than anyone else, and Victoria Falls, where everyone knows that visitors want the best.
In Southern Africa, the top country when it comes to clean streets is Namibia.
There, citizens simply do not litter, ever, and when a visitor drops something they will be told, very clearly, that: “We don’t do that here.”
If the blushing tourist fails to pick up the piece of litter, the local will do so, ostentatiously, and dump it in a bin to shame the outsider.
Namibia still has street sweepers, but they are there to keep the sand at bay since the country is in a desert. Namibia even has highway signs reminding motorists to: “Please keep our desert clean”.
Rwanda started its “stay clean” campaign several years ago as part of the general raft of reforms by President Paul Kagame, and the success is so startling that it inspired President Mnangagwa to start the same in Zimbabwe.
EMA director environmental services Mr Steady Kangata said yeseterday that they have “two broad facets that are key for the citizenry to adhere to sustainable practices, which are public awareness and education, and prosecution”.
“Education leads to a change of behaviour and when it comes to waste management, there is some improvements in cleanliness in Harare CBD, although we still have work to do. There is now greater appreciation of waste management because now, everyone is involved unlike in the past. Bulawayo and Victoria Falls are commendably clean.”
Citizens littering the environment from their vehicles are also being clamped down on and Mr Kangata reckons that if the drive continues, a clean environment can be achieved.
In one instance, EMA worked together with the Central Vehicle Registry (CVR) to get details of an owner of a car that was dumping litter by the roadside, and got her details before slapping her with a $600 fine “for dumping”.
Enforcement was also a theme of remarks made by Vice President Kembo Mohadi, who was Acting President, as he led a team at Fife Avenue Shopping Centre in Harare.
He went as far, while wrestling with the mounds of litter left around the area, as suggesting the police should “consider establishing a separate law enforcement unit. This will ultimately curb all environmental offences as you have successfully achieved in the gold mining sector. As Zimbabweans, we must have a culture of cleanliness and take pride in our nation by keeping it clean.”
He also wanted businesses “to adopt the extended producer responsibility principle which calls upon all generators of waste to follow their products from manufacture throughout their lifecycle up to disposal without fail.”
He urged all sectors to embrace self-regulation as a principle to a clean, safe and healthy environment.
“I urge industries to adopt the extended producer responsibility principle which calls upon all generators of waste to follow their products from manufacture throughout their lifecycle up to disposal without fail,” he said.
In the Midlands Province, provincial development coordinator Mr Abiot Maronge led stakeholders who gathered in Torwood suburb, in Redcliff Town, in cleaning residential areas and the shopping centre.
In a speech read on his behalf by the director in his office Mr Cleto Diwa, Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister Larry Mavima urged residents to play a key role in maintaining a litter-free environment.
In Manicaland, EMA led the clean-up campaign at Hartzel High School in Mutare.
EMA board chairperson Ambassador Florence Chideya urged learners to transform the clean-up campaigns into a culture and ensure that cleanliness is attained at all times in a bid to attain vision 2030.
She said Hartzel High School is located near the Mutare-Nyanga highway which leads to one of the major tourist destination in Zimbabwe and there was need to keep it clean to attract more visitors and investors. In
Masvingo, a large number of people turned up for the clean-up campaign that was led by provincial development coordinator Mr Fungai Mbetsa. Mr Mbetsa said the huge turnout confirmed that people were now appreciating the importance of keeping the environment clean.
“This is very encouraging and it shows that people now appreciate the importance of keeping our environment clean. I urge vendors and our business community to take part in this noble initiative to keep our city clean. We can only build a clean Zimbabwe if we work together to clean our environment.”
The Mashonaland Central provincial clean-up co-ordinating committee yesterday took the national exercise to Mazowe Bus Stop, one of the busiest in the province, as a demonstration of their spirit of commitment to cleanliness.
The area acts as a formal bus stop and a terminus for pirate taxis (mushika-shika) that ferry artisanal gold miners to Jumbo and Masasa areas where there is a high influx of people because of the current gold rush.
Acting Mashonaland Central provincial development co-ordinating Mr Cosmas Chiringa called for the formation of a clean-up committee in the area that monitors the cleanliness of the area every week to ensure that people live in a safe healthy environment.
In Mashonaland West the major clean up exercise was at Waverly Bus Terminus in Kadoma.
Reverend Paul Damasane, who led the proceedings, said Kadoma suffered a lot of pollution and called for change in the way the local authority burns fossil fuels and adopt cleaner energy.
Business community, environmentalist and other stakeholders in the city participated at the clean-up exercise.
The council received a donation of 80, 50 litre bins from TelOne and five 20 litre bins from Zimplats.
Development Trust of Zimbabwe board member for Mashonaland West province Mr Francis Khondanani donated $3 500 for fuel to collect refuse while the city’s perennial anti-litter campaigners National Environmental Awareness Trust provided material that was used during the clean-up exercise
In Beitbridge scores of residents gathered at Chicago village some 12km along the Beitbridge Masvingo road to clean the area along the highway and the business centre, with emphasis on bus terminuses. Acting district development coordinator Mr Jahson Mugodzwa led the proceedings.