Bulawayo (New Ziana)- Local authorities should engage the corporate sector and other stakeholders to ensure the challenges of waste management which they are grappling with are addressed in a holistic and sustainable manner, a senior ruling party official has said.
Zanu PF vice president Kembo Mohadi said this while addressing guests at a national Clean Up exercise held at Nkulumane Bullet shopping centre last Friday.
The clean-up was attended by various stakeholders including residents.
“Local authorities should form synergies with progressive organisations and the corporate sector to ensure waste management challenges are holistically and sustainably dealt with.
“Issues of clogged drainage systems and illegal waste dumpsites common in most of our towns and cities in the country should be a thing of the past,” said Mohadi.
He urged Ministries, departments, agencies and private organisations to appoint focal persons to oversee the management of waste within and around their premises.
“Our government is appealing to the corporate sector, community and business entities to adopt areas to clean up,” said VP Mohadi.
Mohadi challenged the business community to assist local authorities by providing them with rubbish bins to ensure the public did not throw litter everywhere.
He also urged local authorities to embrace the national clean-up campaign by cleaning up residential areas.
“Be at ward level, councillors should have plans to implement cleanliness in areas of their jurisdiction. It is their duty to ensure that communities that they lead and the environment in which they live are clean,” he said.
Local authorities should also ensure waste was collected regularly to avoid exposing residents to diseases, he said.
Mohadi also challenged local authorities to engage the private sector in waste collection to avoid the proliferation of illegal dumpsites.
He applauded the City of Bulawayo for embracing the national clean up campaigns and urged other local authorities to follow suit.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2018 declared the first Friday of each month the National Environment Cleaning Day as his administration moves to ensure the country has a sustainable environment management system.
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