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Grace Nyoni, Midlands Reporter
GWERU City Council (GCC), which has a dilapidated refuse collection fleet, has turned to residents that have trucks to assist in collection of garbage. The local authority has also asked for cooperation as it implements the 3R concept which calls for residents to reuse, reduce and recycle their waste.
In an interview recently, Gweru Mayor Councillor Charles Chikozho said council would engage private contractors in every suburb. He said those with private trucks with a capacity of at least five tonnes can apply to council so that they collect refuse in their respective suburbs and deposit it at the council dumpsite.
The mayor said the local authority has launched community based awareness programmes in all wards in a bid to incorporate residents in the management of refuse using the 3R concept which is reduce, reuse and recycle.
“We have launched ward based community a wareness programmes where we are encouraging residents to minimise the rate of waste through the 3R concept since we don’t have enough refuse collection trucks at the moment. The programmes are lined up for all areas in Gweru and people would be advised to reuse or recycle some of the waste to reduce the rate of waste being generated,” he said.
Clr Chikozho said the local authority has only two refuse collection trucks servicing the whole city.
“We only have two trucks on the road servicing the whole of Gweru and they work on double shifts so that they can collect garbage from all areas of the city but we have been failing to meet the demand. That’s why we have turned to the 3R concept to manage waste,” he said.
“The other trucks are down and the spare parts are not available on the local market to get them fixed. We are not going to sit around and watch waste management failing because of missed refuse collection days.”
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