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Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter

The near collapse of garbage removal in the four Harare Metropolitan councils caused President Mnangagwa to yesterday declare a “state of disaster” the poor waste management that has seen ever-growing piles of garbage going uncollected for months with mounds of rubbish becoming common in most shopping centres and residential areas.

The declaration overtakes the legal municipal independence for local services enjoyed by Harare and Chitungwiza, and the near independence by Epworth and Ruwa local boards, and thus allows the central Government to move in. 

A similar declaration allowed the central Government to move in a while ago and take over road reconstruction and maintenance, again normally a pure local government function if the local authorities are even modestly efficient.

For the rubbish the Environmental Management Agency was designated as the lead central government agency to co-ordinate and enforce efficient rubbish removal.

Harare Metropolitan Province is made up of Harare, Chitungwiza, Epworth and Ruwa, the first, third, fifth and seventh most populated urban centres in Zimbabwe.

The declaration was published in terms of the Civil Protection Act under Statutory Instrument 140 of 2023 cited as the Civil Protection (Declaration of State of Disaster: Emergency Solid Waste Management Harare Metropolitan Province) Notice, 2023.

According to SI 140, Government “noted with great concern the deplorable state of cleanliness of the Harare Metropolitan Province, characterised among other things by litter and waste dumps accumulating in business and residential areas of the province, open burning of garbage and indiscriminate illegal dumping of solid waste and littering”. 

The SI added that the local authorities in the province were unable to manage their waste due, among other reasons, to their failure to invest in waste management infrastructure, and the related equipment and human resources along with their inefficient collection practices and lack of environmental control systems.

“As a result of the failure to properly manage waste within the Harare Metropolitan Province, a state of disaster exists in that province with effect from the promulgation of this declaration,” the notice stated. 

For the duration of the state of disaster, the minister responsible for Environment will confer powers to the Environmental Management Agency to coordinate activities to manage waste within the province. 

While the declaration is in force, the agency has a five-fold function to co-ordinate the efforts to the four local authorities, have the illegal dumps removed, waste regularly collected from all premises, the local authorities put in public bins in streets and public places, and run intensive education campaigns.

Going into detail on each function, the agency will “co-ordinate the use of materials and services made available by local authorities within the Harare Metropolitan Province during the state of disaster”.

The agency will then “endeavour to remove illegal solid waste dumps by means of a range of activities including mapping, quantification and clearing of illegal waste dumps and direct local authorities within the Harare Metropolitan Province to establish appropriately designed and designated waste transfer stations”.

It will “direct local authorities within the Harare Metropolitan Province, under its supervision, to undertake periodic refuse collection, consisting of street by street waste collection including sanitary lanes”.

The agency will “direct local authorities within the Harare Metropolitan Province, under its supervision, to install bins in streets and public places”. That should cut back on the piles of street rubbish that continually grows as people litter.

Finally EMA must “undertake, together with local authorities within the Harare Metropolitan Province, awareness campaigns through roadshows, radio and television programmes and sector-specific cluster meetings”, the SI further reads.

EMA’s cost of managing the waste during the subsistence of the declaration would be come from the National Civil Protection Fund and from the local authorities concerned.

Ever since the opposition took over the running of the capital at the turn of the century general service delivery, including waste management, has deteriorated and with residents calling on Government to take action to reverse the rot.

In May this year, Harare mayor, Councillor Jacob Mafume conceded that refuse collection remained a major challenge with only half the 36 garbage trucks needed for the city being operational.

In his first quarter report, Clr Mafume said: “In the first quarter of 2023 fleet availability remained depressed with an average of 18 trucks per day which is not ideal considering that we require 36 refuse compactors per day. The situation is very gloomy.”

Mayor Mafume said door-to-door refuse collection coverage stood at 42 percent, which was a decrease of 10 percent as of December 31, 2022, as a result of the decrease in fleet availability.

He also conceded the flopping of the much hyped “Operation Chenesa Harare”, an initiative which was meant to mobilise communities and corporates to participate in cleaning up the city.

Following a cholera outbreak in the city which killed 16 people, the Environmental Management Agency announced plans to take over refuse collection in the city. But in order to get this right to do the work directly, even with the tough environmental laws in the country, it needed the declaration of the state of disaster so that it could give orders to local authorities and take over some of their functions. Otherwise it was limited to making findings and pressing the councils to do something.

Some Harare residents expressed anger at the council for failing to collect garbage on time.

“We are forced to litter because the Harare City Council rarely comes to collect garbage. I can’t even recall the last time they did,” Ms Nyaradzai Kufanesu said.

Another resident, Ms Nomsa Tinarwo also expressed dismay over poor service delivery, saying this was now a daily occurrence.