Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
BEITBRIDGE Municipality needs at least US$500 000 to construct a standard engineered landfill to improve its capacity to deal with issues of solid waste management in line with the town’s rapid growth in the last decade, an official has said.
The town’s environmental health officer, Mr Pio Muchena told the parliamentary committee on public accounts last week that already they were engaging corporates, residents, and other players to assist them.
He said already they had identified two sites to build a temporary dumpsite and a standard engineered landfill west of the border town. Mr Muchena said the dumpsite that was set up in the 1970s had outlived its lifespan. The committee was on a nationwide tour to local authorities which according to the 2018 Auditor General’s report, are struggling to conform to standard solid waste management systems.
“Although we have been budgeting to construct a modern landfill, with our low revenue this might take forever. So, we are engaging many players including those carrying out major infrastructure development projects like housing development, the border modernisation to assist.
Ideally, we need around US$500 000 to build one cell of the landfill, and for Beitbridge, we need three sales that can last for more than 10 years. For now, we can manage if we set up one.”
He said the town’s population was growing rapidly and that there was need to be ahead in terms of setting proper service delivery standards.
Beitbridge is the face of Zimbabwe to those coming in through South Africa and those in transit (15 000 daily) from other countries in the region (Sadc).
The municipality is collecting around 700 tonnes of solid waste monthly although they believe that the 70 000 population was producing an excess of over 1 000 tonnes of solid waste.
“This calls for us to involve all the players if we are to come up with a modern solid waste management system,” said Mr Muchena.
He said the town was generating a lot of litter due to its high economic activity and location as a transit point.
“We have pressure with our dumpsite and are hopeful that we will have a standard dumpsite because we are limited in terms of resources. With part of the funds we received from the Government for devolution initiative, we have already ordered a Tractor Loader Backhoe (TLB) and a bigger refuse compact,” said Mr Muchena.
He said they had also lined up over 150 bins along the highway and major link roads to minimise littering.
In addition, he said they had licensed a number of recycling companies to help with the separation of waste at the source.
Mr Muchena said they were also working with community environment monitors, and waste management clubs to improve their capacity to manage solid waste.
Town clerk, Mr Loud Ramakgapola said they had also introduced an annual mayor’s anti-litter half marathon race to promote the community and the corporates’ participation in issues concerning littering. -@tupeyo
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