adminThupeyo Muleya
Beitbridge Bureau
Beitbridge town is one of the fastest developing urban settlements in the country, where demand for people-centred services has become elusive.
The town is home to an estimated 70 000 people and caters for a daily transit population of 15 000.
At least 1 500 light vehicles, 120 buses and 1 200 commercial trucks pass through the town daily.
Like any other town it has its own fair share of service delivery problems.
These including the crumbling road networks, intermittent water and sewer reticulation deficiencies among others.
As a town located in Sadc’s busiest economic hub, it carries the larger burden of a transit population.
Although a lot has been done by the local authority to absorb the shocks that come with their location, the situation keeps compounding due to resources limitations.
The last festive seasons brought a lot of headaches for the town’s authorities and local residents, in terms of the provisions of social amenities and management of solid waste of an increasingly mobile population.
Littering escalated when travellers, motorists and truck drivers were spending between two and five days to cross the South African border.
Delays were attributed to a number of factors, including a marked increase in the volume of commercial cargo through Beitbridge and the slow screening of travellers for Covid-19.
Vendors were seen daily selling their products to travellers in buses, trucks and light vehicles, with queues stretching for more than 5km into the town area.
After consuming whatever they would have bought, the travellers would throw litter through the window, with a few others using vandalised bins along the roads.
Some travellers with the money would use pay toilets from Dulivhadzimu suburb and others preferred using the bushes near the ZESA complex, Zimra Container Depot and the CBD to relieve themselves.
The fear among residents is that such a scenario creates a breeding ground for water bone diseases considering that we are in the midst of a rainy season.
The local council’s burden has been worsened in an area where only 700 tonnes against 1 000 tonnes of solid waste is being collected monthly.
Suddenly the major roads have become littered with empty cans, disposable food containers, empty plastic containers, baby diapers, and used masks.
Spokesperson for the Beitbridge Residents Association, Mr Jabulani Makhado said the local authority, Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and the Ministry of Health and Child Care should have moved in to manage the disposal of solid waste at the onset of the border congestion.
“This situation was avoidable had all the role players acted swiftly. We can’t wait for the dirt to accumulate, it’s important to have contingency plans to minimise such issues.
“In fact, the municipality, Ministry of Health, Civil Protection and EMA are fully aware that three times each year, Beitbridge hosts huge volumes of traffic on either side of the border. Plans for temporary toilets, refuse bins and even semi-mobile waste bins should have been rolled out ahead of time,” said Mr Makhado.
The Assistant Regional Immigration officer-in-charge of Beitbridge, Mr Nqobile Ncube said the local authority should be cognisant of the volumes of people that use the border and make contingency plans to increase resource allocations for waste and refuse management during peak movements.
“Also, the placement of litter drums around key points and enforcement of anti-littering rules would help,” he said.
According to EMA’s manager responsible for education and publicity, Ms Amkela Sidange the starting point to address littering is to inculcate the best practices in waste management within communities.
She said some entities manning strategic points with a likelihood to experience increased waste generation should always put in place enough waste receptacles.
This, she said, will contain the waste and also have in place waste management strategies.
“It remains the sole responsibility of the entity under whose jurisdiction the area falls to ensure there is proper waste management.
“As per the current regulations all public conveyance vehicles should have adequate waste receptacles for passengers to place litter, and it’s an offence for passengers to throw litter out of their vehicles,” said Ms Sidange.
She said EMA has been carrying out awareness campaigns at roadblocks to educate both transporters and travellers on the protection of the environment.
In some instances, the violators, she said were fined or taken to court for prosecution.
Ms Sidange challenged the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development to ensure road servitudes were kept clean through placing litter receptacles along highways and ensure that waste is collected regularly, and above all ensure highways are cleaned often.
“The agency has finished identifying all highway hot spots and is now in the process of issuing orders to line ministry for the clean-up of hotspot areas,” she said.
Beitbridge town clerk, Mr Loud Ramakgapola said littering related to border delays had become a cause for concern.
“There has been a lot of littering along with the highway, especially the last three weeks where we had a queue of trucks since early December last year.
“The trucks were in the queue for almost a week and in between, there was lots of littering and open defecation. These are issues of concern,” he said.
Mr Ramakgapola said the local authority had since approached some NGOs to assist with mobile toilets, water bowsers and erection of more bins along the highway.
“We do not want this situation (littering) to repeat. We want to make sure that we will be ready to deal with an influx of travellers during the Easter Holidays,” he added.
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