"We are our own worst enemy"

City of Harare on Twitter: "Council workers carry out drainage clearance ahead of the rainy season. The drain clearance programme is an ongoing process because each day our people are littering the

Bridget Mabanda

Residents in Harare have castigated behaviour by vendors and non-tolerant citizens who have a tendency of dumping litre in catch pits and drainage systems thereby compelling council to conduct drain clearance throughout the year.

The concerns come after the council said acting Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Kirsty Coventry, had denied Harare’s bid to recruit drain cleaners, grass cutters and street cleaners at a time the council is experiencing a shortage of manpower.

In a post by the council, one of the residents Chido Shelter Ngoshi, commented:

“Council should stipulate fines for dumping in the CBD on companies so that those companies will, in turn, push their clients to practice safe disposal. For example, there are a lot of fast foods/take away packaging in the CBD.”

Munyaradzi Afriqa Zimbizi said: The biggest problem is the attitude of citizens. If waste receptacles are in place why does a full-grown human see no problem in throwing litter all over the place? The mindset should change and the city and country should introduce stiff penalties for littering and at the same time provide enough bins. In this century we cannot deal with machapa.”

“We as individuals must also play our part to keep our city clean as much as we can by not just throwing litter just anywhere, except if there is a bin. But if there isn't one, let's be hygienic and keep our litter until we find a reasonable place to put it. We have to reshape our mentality towards litter disposal, and be conscious of clean and smart people, contributed Brian Cherera.

Meanwhile, the Harare Municipality has procured a new excavator which will be dedicated to drain clearing at a time it has been noted that some drainages have not been cleared in the past eight or more years.

The city has also procured three excavators, one front-end loader and three tractors - trailer combinations to assist in loading and transportation of spoil from drains as this is one of our major challenges at the moment.