EMA roped in to spearhead waste management
THE rehabilitation of an environment which has been brutalised by careless waste disposal and sand barons is now difficult for local authorities to retain the natural structure of the land, a Government official has said.
This was why Government was bringing in the Environmental Management Authority to do the work.
This came out at an Inter Ministerial Technical Committee meeting held in Harare on waste management, sand poaching and wetlands preservation and hosted by Harare Metropolitan Province Permanent Secretary Mr Tafadzwa Muguti.
Speaking during the meeting, Mr Muguti said the clean-up operation was backed by the mantra of living no place behind towards achieving Vision 2030.
He urged all public servants to participate in the clean-up operations to remove waste in dumping sites.
“Let me assure you that I have made a commitment that we will fix Harare,” he said. “Not in another lifetime, in this lifetime. We have brought the Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry so that the Government departments under those ministries play ball. We are not going to live any stone unturned.”
Mr Muguti said the operations to bring back sanity in Harare City were delayed by Harare City Council who failed to commit to the operation that was set in motion.
“The local authorities, we were giving you a grace period for you to commit, but we now know how City of Harare operates and it is time we take action,” he said.
Mr Muguti said sand poaching had damaged the environment, but there were measures put in place to maintain order.
“All sand instruction is going to be strictly prohibited and restricted to local authorities through gazetted prices which are going to be at the purview of EMA,” he said. “To support that there will be special licences going forward for brick sales, sand sales paving sales, any form of concrete or sand products as well as quarry sales.”
Environment Management Agency director Steady Kangata said municipal authorities were held accountable for illegal discharge of effluent from municipal and industrial activities and it had become a major challenge.
“Illegal discharge of effluent from municipal activities is a big challenge,” he said. “At times as EMA we are there just to bring sanity not to say that EMA will rely on those fines, no. It’s for us to bring sanity and it is high time local authorities play ball in terms of the prosecution and take charge of all the environmental issues that will be taking place in their areas of jurisdictions.”
The City’s Environmental Management Unit head Mr Lisben Chipfunde said their contributions were delayed because they were not ready.
“The town clerk and the finance director asked us to take all the requirements to them so that they can see how quickly our contributions can be mobilised,” he said.