dyton mupawaenda
THE Environmental Management Agency has a continuous campaign against litter, especially in urban areas.
In their latest update, EMA say they have arrested 364 individuals for littering and imposed fines of up to US$500 on businesses for failing to provide litter bins, as part of an ongoing anti-litter monitoring initiative.
EMA targets individuals who discarding litter at undesignated points and dumping at undesignated points, with fines imposed according to the law.
Apart from individuals, businesses in the Harare Central Business District have already been fined up to $500 for failing to provide litter bins on their premises.
However, a look at the archives shows that EMA has been launching these campaigns against litterbugs almost every six months or year.
This suggests that they are not meeting targets or there is no change in behaviour, especially by individuals.
But there seems to be a problem with the deployment of EMA enforcement officers or enforcement of the laws governing their operations, which has seen little change in behaviour year in, year out. There are fixed places where littering takes place but there does not seem to be any attempts to stop the perpetrators.
It is common cause that illegal street vendors are the biggest polluters and they start littering the moment they set up their stalls in the morning.
They consume their food throughout the day and throw plastics bags and related containers all over the place such that their places of “business” resemble dumpsites at the end of the day.
It does not take much to actually locate the polluting illegal vendors, especially in busy places like the Harare CBD.
What that means is that EMA do not need to do much, they just deploy their officers at these common places where illegal vendors operate from and make arrests throughout the day.
If such an operation does not bring to an end the polluting habits, then the lawmakers would need to review the penalties.
Another easy area to see and punish polluters are the commuter Omnibus ranks countrywide where a combination of touts and kombi/bus crews also behaves like the illegal vendors and start eating from the moment they arrive.
But unlike the illegal vendors, the touts and kombi/bus crews actually operate from ranks which have many litter bins but they are just lazy to walk to them after consuming their food. Again, EMA will simply need to be stationed there and make numerous arrests.
In the residential areas, people are dumping litter in open spaces especially when the local authorities fail to collect garbage as expected. The culprits are easy to spot if EMA are to deploy officers and sustain the operation.
It is a war that can be won and EMA simply need to target the low hanging fruits first.
Online Reporter