WASTE MANAGEMENT CRUCIAL FOR HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

By Kudzanai Gerede

Latest statistics from Environment Africa, a regional non-governmental organization say approximately 10 tonnes of plastic was collected by small-scale plastic recycling enterprises, individual pickers and other environmental organizations and recycled in Zimbabwe from October 2013 to March 2014.

This comes at a time when local councils are failing to cope with collection of garbage that many environmentally conscious individuals and enterprises have taken it upon themselves to save the environment.

A panoramic view of most urban centers tells a melancholic tale of a dump site-ridden environment which explicitly document serious failure by local government authorities in the country in maintaining sanity in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

This is however largely influenced by the increase in population of urban dwellers which is evidently overwhelming the local authorities’ capacity to deliver services, recklessness by communities to keep the environment clean and the reluctance of responsible authorities to improve the dire conditions at hand.

This has seen big cities in the country lose their once glittering scenery as heaps of waste have since become a constant feature at every turn.

As the world commemorates the environment week, there is need to rethink on how we can improve our environment especially around areas of waste management which has proved to be a void in our country.

Indeed waste management is a challenge but with adequate will and zeal waste can be controlled and even generate revenue for various communities.

It is common knowledge that un-designated dump sites that have sprung up everywhere in our communities have negative implications on our health but many people are not cognizant of the fact that dump sites if not properly handled can cause calamity to future generations as they produce a liquid substance called leachate, which is a mixture of water and various corroded metals, acids and other decomposed material which becomes toxic hence contaminating ground water once it reach the water table.

 There is  need to do away with all undesignated dumpsites in every neighborhood and for the councils to build proper landfills at central points which have the ability to trap the toxic leachate from reaching the underground water and avoid the Umguza fiasco.

Such is the predicament villagers in Umguza district in Matebeleland North are facing, where parts of Umguza river has been heavily contaminated with lead and mercury substances resulting in villagers complain of severe stomachaches which has prompted the local authorities to call for a shut down of all boreholes.

This has seen low agricultural yields as the toxic substances are also affecting the crops which depend on Umguza river and experts also say is heavily contaminated with raw sewage coming from Bulawayo.

The solution then lies in the setting up of sustainable structures to avoid such calamities in  future for instance, taking seriously the initiative of setting up biogas plants which will accommodate large amounts of waste currently dumped in form of raw sewage in rivers and use it for generation of electricity which can be part of the answer to the country’s perennial energy challenges.

The city councils of Harare and Bulawayo are on record of suggesting for the biogas move but nothing has come out of it as yet.

It is time waste is not viewed in the conventional light of being merely a burden to throw away but to be perceived as raw materials for reuse.

There has been a widespread debate on the issue of the country exporting waste to other countries like South Africa and China. Scrap metals and glass are being exported to other countries where they will be recycled and be imported again as finished products at a price.

Despite that the country does not have recycling plants to process sophisticated waste, many are of the view that the country is exporting raw materials for free hence buy the recycled product at a high cost, an exercise promoting other countries’ industries and compromising employment opportunities for our citizens hence much emphasis be laid upon skill development and acquiring machinery for recycling.

Local authorities remain inactive on the matter despite the ever mounting heaps of garbage occupying large acres of our environment. Once decomposed, they create and release toxic gases like methane which can pollute the air we breathe hence negatively impacting on the natural ecosystem.