Chronicle Editor
Tafadzwa Chibukwa, Chronicle Reporter
GWANDA Rural District Council (RDC) in Matabeleland South province is in the process of reviewing and introducing new by-laws meant to address issues to do with the environment, settlements, solid waste management, among others.
The number of by-laws that will be introduced amount to 38. In an interview with Chronicle, Gwanda RDC Natural Resources Manager, Mr Jabuliso Masango said council has sent a team to conduct public consultations.
“We are working on introducing 38 by-laws that speak to addressing issues of solid waste management, affluent, infrastructural development and settlement among others. We have a team that is making rounds conducting consultations to get views of people and challenges that they face with the topical issues,” said Mr Masango.
He said they want to come up with solutions to solid waste management at the main source, which is in households where the solid waste is coming from.
“We want to reduce the amount of waste that is produced as well as manage to separate and segregate our waste at its source so that our work is made easier.
“Dealing with solid waste at its source will go a long way in reducing the amount of waste dumped at our landfills,” said Mr Masango.
He said reviewing laws will also help promote effluent waste management.
“In terms of effluent management, we have infrastructure that is now old that was created for small populations. With the growing population, day by day, we are producing more than the system can handle hence giving us challenges. That is what we are looking at solving efficiently by proposing the upscaling of the designed systems to accommodate all the waste produced by the growing population,” said Mr Masango.
He said once consultations have been made and by-laws have been put in place and gazetted by Government, they look forward to improved standards of operation.
Environmental Management Authority (EMA) environmental education and publicity manager, Mrs Amkela Sidange applauded efforts by local authorities in enforcing environmental laws.
“We greatly appreciate local authorities who are coming up with by-laws to improve environmental management by the enforcement of environmental laws. Faced with their own environmental challenges, by coming up with by-laws, the local authorities are domesticating the environmental laws in addressing their challenges which is a good thing that shows that they are actively participating in developing their environments,” she said.
She said local authorities are actively taking part in the fulfilment of the environmental action plans. — @Sagepapie14
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