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Elita Chikwati Senior Agriculture Reporter
Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has urged all local authorities to ensure storm drains are cleared of waste ahead of the onset of the rainfall season as this reduces flash flooding in urban areas during periods of high rainfall.
EMA education and publicity manager Ms Amkela Sidange said proliferation of waste dumps creates favourable breeding ground for disease-causing vectors resulting in diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid and Malaria.
“Hence the call for local authorities to go all systems out in prioritising the integrity of the environment; and health of the public and avoid unnecessary loss of lives and health care costs.
“EMA has already started serving local authorities with Environmental Protection Orders to remind them to clear storm drains in readiness for the rainy season and to promote proper waste management.
“With the approaching rainy season, farmers are now preparing land for farming, and the agency is calling upon farmers to desist from opening land for farming using fires since it’s still dry and this can cause veld fires when these fires go out of control,” she said.
She said over 80 percent of veld fire incidences recorded to date this fire season were due to land clearing for agriculture.
She discouraged farmers from practising stream bank cultivation and to urged farmers to desist from wetland cultivation as this results in the destruction of these vital ecological systems.
“Such practices are against the precepts of sustainable agriculture as they contribute towards siltation of water bodies resulting in the subsequent water shortages; and water quality and biodiversity loss.
“Chemicals used for agriculture can also pollute the water bodies resulting in the death of aquatic life. Local authorities are called upon to enforce their local bylaws and ensure urban farming is done only in designated areas to avoid cultivation taking place in fragile ecosystems,” she said.
EMA applauded seed and fertiliser companies that took heed of the call by the agency to stop setting up demonstration plots in wetlands which was in the process promoting wetland cultivation.
Online Reporter