Tanaka Nyambo
THE increase in garbage piles in Harare’s residential areas and the city centre has reached alarming levels.
Harare City Council has been found wanting for not collecting garbage in residential areas after posting a garbage collection time table on Facebook promising to collect every week.
High-density areas are the worst affected.
Many residents are either hiring private collectors while others are dumping garbage at undesignated dumpsites.
A survey in Budiriro, Glen View, Mabvuku and High Glen suburbs showed there was an increase in dumpsites with residents complaining over the local authority’s inconsistency in refuse collection.
Glen View residents said they were paying their bills every month but it’s been long since they last saw the garbage trucks.
A resident, Juliet Nyamara, said:
“Council is not collecting garbage, which forces us to dispose of garbage in bushy areas at night while others are dumping it in the middle of roads.
“This is how we are surviving for now because we can’t keep garbage at home.”
Another resident, Tadiwa Makoni, said they are now living in fear of cholera and diarrhoea because children go to play at the dumpsites.
“Council sometimes come to collect garbage but they don’t give us notice so some of us miss the truck.
“We also live in fear because our kids sometimes end up playing in a dumpsite which might end up with them being exposed to various diseases.
“Some people have resorted to dumping garbage in rivers because it will be washed away when it rains but water is now being contaminated.”