Online Reporter
Diana Nherera in Chitungwiza
HARARE Metropolitan Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Senator Charles Tawengwa has commended the clean environment at Chigovanyika Business Centre in Chitungwiza, where the national clean-up was held this morning.
He urged other business centres and shopping centres within the province to emulate such levels of cleanliness.
Addressing people who took part in the clean-up and other stakeholders, Sen Tawengwa urged local authorities in Harare Metropolitan Province to come up with waste management committees at shopping centres comprising of small to medium enterprises and business entities.
“These committees will complement the cleaning done by council cleaners by ensuring their working environments are clean all the time,” he said.
Minister Tawengwa also encouraged all local authorities to keep their environments clean and set standards such as installation of bins, regular refuse collection schedules and disposal of waste promoting recycling initiatives and putting in place waste transfer centres.
He said effective waste recovery for recycling was crucial.
“By implementing best practices such as proper waste collection and recovery, we can address one of the root causes of improper waste management and move towards a cleaner, greener future.
“The amount of waste being generated is increasing in our localities so there is need for all of us to embrace the culture of waste separation,” he said.
“We need to adopt practices that reduce waste generation at source and reduce waste accumulation in the environment.
“Waste sorting at source is the best way to go in our quest to achieve sustainable solid waste management.
“These integrated solid waste management initiatives from the communities need support of the recycling industry, which should be able to absorb all recyclables without putting any to waste.”
He appealed to the business community to come on board with the idea of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes on problematic products by acknowledging their responsibility in creating this pollution at shopping centers and surrounding areas.
“The business community has to come up with a holistic approach which has solutions that are sustainable and not relying too much on short-term actions like cleanup campaigns,” said Sen Tawengwa.
Chitungwiza mayor Rosaria Mangoma said her municipality is honoured to have hosted the Harare Metropolitan Province’s cleanup campaign in Chitungwiza.
Chitungwiza junior mayor Oswell Anesu Masunda said gone are the days when there was no refuse collection and people used to throw garbage and litter everywhere.
He discouraged the throwing of garbage and litter, as it is now a crime.
