The Sunday Mail
Debra Matabvu
In front of Mrs Florence Kasambira’s home in Manyame Park lies an enormous landfill.
It is easy to miss her well-manicured front yard as one’s attention is easily drawn towards mounds of waste adjacent to her house.
For years, she has not opened her window and no longer knows what breathing in fresh air feels like.
The repulsive stench coming from the landfill has made sure that her windows remain perpetually shut.
“We have been living with the garbage for years now,” she told The Sunday Mail last week.
“The stench is so unpleasant and it becomes more unbearable during the rainy season, and when a garbage fire has been lit.
“Worms and rodents crawl over the pre-cast wall into my yard and it is distressing.”
The pungent stench wafting from the landfill is intolerable.
Having lived with uncollected garbage for years, Mrs Kasambira and her neighbours agree that authorities are treating them like human garbage.
The affected community’s predicament echoes a widespread hazard that has become one of Harare and Chitungwiza’s most glaring environmental sins.
Heaps of waste have become an all too familiar sight around Harare, covering nearly all open spaces. In central Harare, massive landfills have built up in areas such as Chinhoyi Street (Copacabana), Market Square bus terminus and along Leopold Takawira Street and Bank Street near Bata.
Residential areas have not been spared as well.
No end in sight
Harare has struggled to collect garbage for the past two decades.
A study commissioned by the United Nations Habitat last year titled the “Waste Wise Cities Tool” concluded that Harare generates 762 tonnes of refuse daily, translating to 278 130 tonnes of solid waste a year.
For a city of 2,5 million residents, this translates to every individual accounting for about 111 kilogrammes a year.
The UN study also found that only 27 percent of the waste is collected, while only 2 percent is managed in controlled facilities, leaving the rest to flow into water bodies or remain on the streets.
The survey adds that 373 tonnes of the waste can be recycled.
Experts trace Zimbabwe’s problem with litter to the use of plastic packaging for food and drinks that became ubiquitous towards the turn of the century.
Manufacturers of soft drinks and water now predominantly package their products in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.
Food takeaways and restaurants which previously served their customers food in kaylites (expanded polystyrene) before they were banned now prefer to use polythene packaging.
Most parents now also prefer wrapping their babies in diapers, which constitute the bulk of waste found in landfill dumps in most residential areas.
Previously, most parents used cloth napkins.
Incapacitation
In the past, council’s refuse collection trucks made weekly rounds around the city on scheduled days but this is no longer the case.
However, Harare continues to levy rates for refuse collection.
Harare City Council has a fleet of 19 serviceable trucks servicing 46 districts with an estimated population of 2,5 million.
Council acting spokesperson Mr Innocent Ruwende said the local authority was in the process of acquiring more refuse collection trucks.
“We are expecting 10 new trucks during the first quarter of this year, with four of the trucks having already been delivered,” he said.
“Out of the 46 trucks that we currently have, between 19 and 21 trucks are currently in service.
“The other trucks are down but we are working on repairing them.”
In what was an illustration of gross mismanagement at Town House, in 2017 Harare lost over US$1,8 million in two separate deals after a supplier failed to deliver some of the trucks.
In May 2017, Harare contracted Mass Breed Investments, trading as FAW Zimbabwe, to supply 30 refuse compactors in a deal worth US$3 095 514.
Later that year, they engaged the same company to supply 10 double skip-bin trucks valued at US$1 529 999.
However, the company only supplied 15 trucks under the first deal, prejudicing council of US$1,55 million.
It also supplied single skip-bin trucks instead of double skip-bin trucks, costing council approximately US$330 000 under the second deal.
An investigation by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government later concluded that council officials failed to carry out proper due diligence.
Mr Ruwende said council had taken FAW Zimbabwe to court.
Chitungwiza Town Council spokesperson Mr Lovemore Meya said the local authority is incapacitated.
Ideally, the dormitory town should have 12 compactors and five skip-bin trucks, but it presently has three compactors, one tipper truck, one skip-bin truck and three garbage trucks.
Most of the vehicles are 1998 models and frequently break down.
Said Mr Meya: “They are constantly breaking down because the fleet has outlived its lifespan.
“Chitungwiza is also undergoing rapid growth resulting in resources being overwhelmed by the population.
“Some areas are also inaccessible as well.”
Clean-up campaign
In 2018, President Mnangagwa declared every first Friday of the month as a national clean-up day to promote cleanliness and preservation of the environment.
While the programme achieved considerable success, it was soon disrupted by the Covid-19-induced lockdowns.
In January, the President led the fourth-anniversary commemoration of the national clean-up campaign in Kwekwe, signalling a resumption of the monthly programme.
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) is now preparing to take Harare to court to compel the city to address the mess.
EMA’s director of environmental management services Mr Steady Kangata said both Harare and Chitungwiza always give countless excuses for their failure to manage solid waste.
“We have engaged Harare and Chitungwiza on various occasions and Harare, in particular, has been giving excuses on why they are failing to properly handle waste in the city,” he said.
“Just recently we engaged Harare and they said they only have 11 trucks in service.
“It has been excuse after excuse, so we are instituting a court process to compel Harare to manage waste efficiently.
“We have initiated a High Court petition which seeks to compel Harare to efficiently manage waste in the city.”
He said Harare has failed to take advantage of new technology being used in other jurisdictions to manage waste properly.
“We have also been highlighting to them that the methods they are using are old and archaic,” he added.
“There is need for them to adopt a ‘circular economy’ model, which prioritises recycling and reuse.
“They also have not been using their existing by-laws of littering and waste management as they should be.”
Adapt
Harare Residents Trust (HRT) director Mr Precious Shumba said the city must adopt modern waste management systems.
“In our engagements with responsible officials, they said their vehicles had broken down, leaving them with around 12 vehicles servicing Harare,” he said.
“One key recommendation is Harare should adopt an integrated solid waste management system that emphasises sorting out of waste within the communities so that only real garbage that cannot be recycled is taken to the Pomona dumpsite.
“The residents have also been suggesting that Harare creates dumping areas at central places in the suburbs where residents can dump uncollected garbage so that the council will collect when they have the fuel and refuse collection vehicles.”
While the local authorities continue sleeping on duty, residents such as Mrs Kasambira fear that pollution from the landfills could be damaging their health.
“No one deserves to live like this,” she said.
