adminCrystabel Chikayi, Chronicle Reporter
THE National Ozone Unit of Zimbabwe has said the public must not engage untrained people to repair their refrigerators as that is against the law.
It said people should observe existing regulations on the handling of ozone depleting substances as a way of monitoring climate change.
Participants at a School Teachers Awareness workshop that was held last week at Bulawayo Polytechnic were conscientised on Statutory Instrument (SI) 131 of 2016 which deals with the handling of ozone depleting substances.
“No person shall repair, service, handle, instal, or decommission an ozone depleting substance, greenhouse gas, ozone depleting dependent equipment and greenhouse gas dependent equipment unless he /she has been trained and certified to do such activity by the National Ozone Office, ” reads part of the SI.
Retailers, sellers and distributors of ozone depleting substances and greenhouse gases are not allowed to sell substances to persons that have not been trained to handle such substances.
Mr Freeborn Taruvinga, the Project Monitoring Officer for National Ozone Unit said to ensure that regulations are complied with, Government donated learning equipment to all polytechnics to train refrigerators and air conditioning technicians.
“The training of refrigeration and air conditioning technicians in good refrigeration practices and hydrocarbon technology (formal and informal sector) is underway. The public has a habit of calling everyone and anyone to fix their refrigerators when they break down. The new regulation forbids that. Untrained personnel may fail to handle the refrigerants and as a result impose a threat to the ozone layer as the refrigerants contain hydro fluoro carbons,” said Mr Taruvinga.
He said in Bulawayo two cases of people who were hospitalised after refrigerants exploded while untrained technicians were fixing them, were reported.
“The trained technicians will be certified by the National Ozone Unit and given identity cards. If one invites an untrained technician to their home they will be charged for breaking the law,” said Mr Taruvinga.
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