Harare’s refuse trucks grounded
MORE than half of Harare City Council’s garbage collection vehicle fleet is grounded, leaving only 22 refuse trucks to service the city’s 46 districts and an estimated 2,5 million people in the midst of a deadly typhoid outbreak.
The Sunday Mail has gathered that 25 out of Harare’s 47 refuse collection vehicles are grounded owing to various mechanical challenges.
Harare is grappling with a deadly outbreak of typhoid, which experts believe is a result of generally poor hygiene, which includes uncollected refuse, burst sewer pipes and illegal selling of food.
As of yesterday, Harare had recorded 350 suspected cases of typhoid, with Mbare accounting for 135 of the cases.
The same suburb also had 25 confirmed cases of the disease, while two deaths have been recorded so far.
City authorities say the disease has since spread to other suburbs including Budiriro and Glen View, where several suspected cases have also been recorded.
Harare last beefed up its fleet of refuse collection trucks in 2010 and has not been able to provide proper service to the vehicles.
City officials told The Sunday Mail that each truck is operating for an average of 18 hours every day, thereby leading to frequent breakdowns.
Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni confirmed that the city is operating with a depleted fleet.
“Out of 47 vehicles, we only have 22 that are operational.
“Well, there is a strong relationship between the two (typhoid and refuse collection) and it is a water and sanitation-related crisis, the more effective we are, the less chances of exposure.
“We have our problems and sometimes we have no diesel, so we are exposing the city to risk.”
Harare’s acting corporate communi- cations manager Mr Michael Chideme said the city plans to purchase new vehicles this year.
“We are experiencing a challenge with our refuse collection fleet from time to time and we have inadequate vehicles at the moment.
“Our fleet is quite old, it was acquired back in 2010 and some of the vehicles are operating for an average 18 hours a day.
“You can imagine the amount of damage that it does to a vehicle. However, we recently got borrowing powers from Government and we plan to direct part of the money towards acquiring new vehicles.”
In response to the outbreak, city fathers sought to enforce a ban on illegal food vending last week, a plan that failed spectacularly.
A survey around the Harare CBD yesterday showed that vendors had defied last Thursday’s ultimatum as they continued with their business.
Water-borne diseases killed more than 500 people countrywide last year owing to failure by local authorities to provide safe water and proper sanitation.
Official statistics show that 435 people died from common diarrhoea, 84 from dysentery, while typhoid claimed nine lives and cholera one.
Harare City Council health director Dr Prosper Chonzi said, “It appears the outbreak is slowing down but it is too early to derive comfort from the current figures.
“Though there is an apparent slowing down of the disease in Mbare, which is encouraging, we, however, are recording some suspected cases of the disease in other suburbs including Budiriro and Glen View.
“The biggest challenge is that most of the environmental factors that give rise to such outbreaks including uncollected refuse and sewer pipe bursts among others have not been comprehensively addressed, therefore giving way to continued spread of the disease.”
Added Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba: “Garbage is not being collected.
“The 22 trucks cannot clear the whole of Harare every week, which means we face the risk of typhoid spreading.”