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Talent Gore
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) is struggling to clear illegal dumpsites in Harare due to their quick recurrence, prompting the need to educate communities on the dangers of littering.
EMA environmental education and publicity manager, Amkela Sidange, has called on communities to avoid turning their neighbourhoods into illegal dumpsites, saying they pose a serious threat to the health of residents.
“We are finding ourselves in a serious predicament where we are being slowed down in our efforts to clear illegal dumps across the Harare Metropolitan Province because we are noticing that some of the illegal dumps we would have cleared are quickly recurring,” she said.
“There is a need to engage communities and teach them on the benefits of avoiding and safeguarding their areas from illegal dumps. We should try by all means to avoid creating dumpsites as many lives are being lost to cholera.”
She criticised local authorities for the challenge due to their failure to collect refuse on a regular basis, but praised the Ruwa and Epworth Local Boards for their efforts to complement EMA work, and urged Harare City Council to follow suit.
“We feel that local authorities are letting us down because if a local authority goes without collecting garbage for weeks or months, residents have a tendency of dumping litter and once they establish a dumpsite, they keep on dumping,” she said.
Bongani Ndlovu
Mathew Masinge