THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has said it will implement countrywide the Bulawayo anti-litter model which has been successful in reducing dirt in the city.
Zimbabwe has in recent years struggled with waste management resulting in cities and towns becoming an eyesore.
This has also resulted in the spread of diseases such as cholera and Typhoid, among others.
Mismanagement and lack of resources has seen local authorities failing to provide timely litter related services leaving residents dumping litter in undesignated areas.
Despite many campaigns by EMA and its stakeholders to educate people on best ways to dispose litter, few have taken heed and illegal dumping sites continue to proliferate.
Speaking during a media tour held in Harare recently, education and publicity manager for EMA, Steady Kangata said the Bulawayo model of waste management serves as a good example and effective system to rid cities of dirt.
“There is need for more information to be imparted to our people on the proper waste management practices because they clearly do not know them,” Kangata said.
“The Bulawayo anti-litter model which the Bulawayo City Council has implemented is a good model which we are set to take across the country.
“In Bulawayo, the local authority provides refuse bags to residents and these are placed in designated places where the authority then picks them for disposal.
“As a result of the Bulawayo system there are fewer illegal dumpsites in the city.
“We feel that this model if combined with the one used during the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly of putting in place Litter Monitoring Committees in communities, we will do away with illegal dumping sites.”
The Litter Monitoring Committee model has been successfully implemented at Highfield Shopping Centre in Harare.
Kangata said a clean environment besides being good for the health of people, will help boost business operations.
“We have been given priority areas in line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio- Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET) to come up with quick wins between now and 2018,” he said.
“It is sad that at night the city is turned into a vending area and in the morning there is no proper waste management exposing people to lots of diseases.
“We are working with Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and other stakeholders on recycling and we will meet our targets.
“The agency (EMA) will ensure that entities adopt a ‘cradle to the grave’ attitude which will see companies following their products from manufacturing up to their disposal.
“We are engaging various companies and telecoms operators for paperless environmental options.”
Collins Gomo (27) from Budiriro 5 Shopping Centre said promotion of recycling of materials would speed up the process of returning cities to their sparkling state of yesteryear.
“We know that energy can be made from litter, but we do not know why our companies are not taking advantage of these to make energy,” said Gomo.
Last year EMA made 703 litter related arrests of individuals and 203 of those were made up of people disposing of litter from vehicles while the remainder were pedestrians.
Some of the waste management options available and easy to implement include ‘reducing’ and ‘reusing’ materials for instance plastic bags which can for instance, be reduced by producing bigger ones for shoppers so that multiple bags are not used.
Reducing begins by ensuring that people use adequate amounts of things, for example, people must prepare food that they can finish.
The reusing concept means not throwing away things such as glass jars, shoe boxes and yoghurt containers which can be used for file storage and as herb planters.