Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau
Gweru City Council is still to decommission a dumpsite in the new Woodlands suburb that is putting thousands of residents at risk of a potential health and environmental disaster. The dumpsite, popularly known as kwaMutasa, was set up before the new suburb was established by private land developer River Valley Properties.

The council has for some time been trying to identify a new dumpsite, with residents raising alarm of a potential health disaster as the dumpsite was now emitting toxic gasses into the new suburb. Health experts say that the short-term exposure to high levels of landfill gas can cause coughing, irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, headache, nausea, and breathing difficulties. The residents are now calling upon Government to intervene and decommission the dumpsite. Minister of State for Midlands Provincial Affairs, Cde Jason Machaya, said the council had taken too long to decommission the old dumpsite.

He said the fact that the dumpsite was now within a residential area posed a serious health hazard to residents. Cde Machaya said a farm had been acquired for a new dumpsite for the city.

“The current dumpsite is now a threat to residents in terms of their health,” said Cde Machaya. “It is compromising their health, so it is a potential health hazard. Government, working with council, has identified a farm for a new dumpsite. This one will be decommissioned soon.” Gweru town clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza is on record as saying dumpsites are not supposed to be permanent under normal circumstances.

“What should have happened before establishing a residential area was to relocate the dumpsite to a place far away from residents,” she said. “Woodlands falls under Vungu and the RDC has no capacity to deal with this issue.” Residents said they feared for the worst when the rainy season starts as contaminated water would flow into the homes.

“We were told that the dumpsite will be decommissioned six months ago, but up to now nothing has been done,” said one of the residents Mr Maxwell Sibanda.

“We are exposed to the choking stench from decomposing waste and council workers also burn garbage every day. The effects can be long term and we are afraid of conditions like cancer lung or skin cancer from pollution from the dumpsite.”

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