The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Correspondent
Rwanda says Zimbabwe’s routine clean-up campaigns are likely to help eradicate diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea.
The central African country’s top envoy to Zimbabwe, Ambassador James Musoni, said this after leading officials from the Rwandan embassy, RwandAir and the Rwandan community in cleaning up parts of Mount Pleasant in Harare.
“Cleanliness has immense benefits for communities because it eliminates diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea and many others,” said Ambassador Musoni.
“The negative impact of uncollected garbage is that it clogs drainage systems and causes floods that can result in loss of life and property. Garbage poses a threat to agricultural production through contamination of water sources.”
The national clean-up programme in Rwanda is known as Umuganda, which can be translated to mean ‘coming together in common purpose”.
It is held on the last Saturday of every month in Rwanda and is spearheaded by the country’s President Paul Kagame.
Umuganda is part of Rwanda’s traditional culture, which encourages members of the community to help each other in undertaking community projects.
Rwanda is rated as one of the cleanest places in the world through the Umuganda programme.
Its cleanliness has helped promote eco-tourism and a cleaner, greener environment that has witnessed an increase in tourism activity relative to other regional countries.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has hailed Umuganda, pointing out that Zimbabweans should emulate their counterparts in Rwanda.
Ambassador Musoni said the relationship between Harare and Kigali was growing stronger by the day, with both countries continuously looking at ways to deepen co-operation in areas of mutual interest.
“The co-operation between Rwanda and Zimbabwe is yielding fruits, especially on the economic front, where both countries are actively seeking to develop their economies and improve people’s lives,” he said.
Harare City Council Mayor Councillor Herbert Gomba and his team took part in the clean-up programme.
Councillor Gomba said his council was eager to learn more on the clean-up exercise from Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
RwandAir country manager Ada Magezi said Rwanda’s airliner wants to continue ploughing back to the community through promoting a clean environment.
It is presently operating direct flights between Harare and Kigali. It also plies strategic direct flights between Harare and Cape Town (South Africa).
Further, the airline has flights from Harare to London and also flies to many other important routes in Africa, Europe, China, India and Dubai.
