Online Reporter
Chronicle Correspondent
ENVIRONMENT, Climate and Wildlife Minister Dr Evelyn Ndlovu has said the City of Victoria Falls and Plumtree Town are the cleanest urban areas in the country as she commended the clean-up approach adopted by various stakeholders in the resort city.
Dr Ndlovu led the National Clean-Up exercise in Victoria Falls yesterday, where she implored all citizens to play a part in the clean-up in line with President Mnangagwa’s vision.
The clean-up was organised by the Victoria Falls City Council and participants included workers from Elephant Hills Resort Hotel, A’Zambezi Hotel, Forestry Commission, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, police, a local non-governmental organisation called Reach Out Trust and others.
The clean-up exercise was done along the highway from Glow Service Station towards Masuwe Bridge.
Dr Ndlovu occasionally stopped to interact with informal traders and transporters, encouraging them to join others to clean around.
She implored councillors to also take the lead in the clean up exercise in their wards.
The City of Victoria Falls adopted a unique clean-up approach through the Pristine Victoria Falls Society, an organisation formed by stakeholders whereby each organisation adopted a section of the city where they clean on a daily basis and carry out enforcement patrols in partnership with the local authority, police and Environmental Management Agency.
Pristine Victoria Falls Society was formed after President Mnangagwa on December 5, 2018 declared that every first Friday of each calendar month is a National Clean-Up Day.
The cleanliness approach in the city saw Victoria Falls getting accredited as a Ramsar Wetland City and has since joined the Ramsar Mayor’s Forum, sharing the stage with world cities that have adopted wise use of wetlands and environment management strategies.
Dr Ndlovu, who assumed chairmanship of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands at the recent 15th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP15) that took place in Victoria Falls from July 23 to 31, implored people to be responsible citizens.
“We are expected to look after everything that God created on this earth and so what you have done today is a demonstration of a Biblical Story. You are supposed to represent God and if you are dirty, then you are far from God,” she said.
“I want to thank the Victoria Falls Mayor, Clr Prince Thuso Moyo, for superintending over a clean environment. As Minister of Environment I want to congratulate Victoria Falls because it is Victoria Falls and Plumtree that are clean. As institutions, as councillors, I have directed that each councillor should take responsibility to clean their own place every month,” said Dr Ndlovu.
She reiterated that cleaning the environment is every citizen’s duty.
“So, we must take responsibility and those who are driving around they must learn to stop and clean or else we put it into law that if you drive past while we are cleaning, you are committing a crime. We don’t want to go that far, we want people to be responsible citizens to make sure that the environment in which they live in is clean,” she added.
Londile Moyo