daniel chigunwe
Blessings Chidakwa
Herald Reporter
A serious shortage of public ablution facilities in Harare has led to the introduction of mobile toilets which are bridging the gap.
The mobile toilets are being placed in hotspots including busy pick-up points for travellers such as the Harare Exhibition Park and the Civic Centre car park off Gamal Abdel Nasser Road.
Some of the areas that require mobile toilets are the Harare’s city centre at a place commonly referred to as Ximex Mall, where illegal dealers are relieving themselves on the streets, posing a serious health hazard.
Other mobile toilets have been placed at the Civil Registry offices, Charge Office and Simon Muzenda bus termini.
The Zimbabwe Mobile Sanitation Association (ZMSA) president Mr Boston Muteya said they were facilitating the placement of the toilets at busy spots.
“The purpose of the programme is to reduce issues of open defecation,” he said. “We are targeting all crowded areas without ablution facilities like markets, truck stop overs, borders, among others,” he said.
“We are also creating employment in the process. We are not taking over council business but complementing as part of creating a clean city.”
Mr Muteya said the council had since given them the green light to operate while finalising paperwork and his organisation had since struck deals with other councils, including Beitbridge.
“So far, we are starting with Harare and spreading to other cities like Beitbridge which we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with,” he said.
Mr Muteya said they were also complementing areas with existing toilets, but failing to cope up with the demand such as Simon Muzenda bus terminus formerly 4th Street.
“There are instances where public toilets will be clogged which has become the norm in most cases and we then complement them with our mobile toilets,” he said.
Online Reporter