Councillor pledges own transport to local authority to collect garbage

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By Lovemore Chazingwa

In a bid to discourage residents and stakeholders from dumping garbage at undesignated sites, Ward 11 councillor Cosmas Dhaka, has joined forces with the local authority to collect filth dumped indiscriminately and deposit it at the city main dumpsite.

The health-promoting exercise was carried out last Sunday in the Waverly suburb. The area that benefitted from the intervention covers the entire Ward 11 and parts of Wards 12 and 17.

“I would like to inform residents and stakeholders that we are partnering with the council to collect garbage dumped at undesignated sites. We encourage you to deposit all the garbage that may be in your homes and place it at all collection points so that we may be able to access and take it to the main dump station. This is not a door-to-door exercise but, we’re targeting communal dumping points,” reads part of a notice on the exercise issued out on Saturday.

In the collaboration, Cllr Dhaka deployed his two tipper trucks and labour force while the council chipped in with a front-end loader, the operator, and enough fuel.

Cllr Dhaka said he was driven by the love for the place he grew up in.

“I’m doing this mainly out of the love of the community that l grew up in. It is a humble way to encourage other players who may be capacitated to come on board and assist our beloved community. I’m not fully capacitated to get the job done. I have a lean fleet while there are others who have bigger fleets that can make a huge difference. In the same vein, l take this opportunity to call upon those who are in the gold buying business to also come on board on resource mobilization.”

Scientific evidence proves that during the rainy season, there are higher chances of contracting diarrhoeal diseases due to the conditions for bacteria.

Environment watchdog EMA encourages individuals, households, and organizations to separate waste before discarding it to enable streamlined use of such waste material.

On the misconception that garbage collection should be the sole responsibility of the local authority, the community leader had this to say: “We should not perceive garbage collection as a sole responsibility of the local authority. It has to be everyone’s duty to ensure that we keep a clean, habitable and healthy environment. Some voices say it’s the council that should do this, nonetheless, my view is that, as a councillor, l have a cardinal part to play, in fighting for a garbage-free environment,” said the innovative
ward head.

Stakeholders and residents applauded the move as a positive one for the ward. A flurry of messages was flighted on local social media groups angling thumps up to that intervention.

Many a voice urged authorities as well as leaders to spread the initiative to all the other wards in the city so that sanity, in terms of sound health, abundantly prevails in the whole constituency.

This is the second time that Cosy Rules Holdings, under the directorship of Cllr Dhaka has partnered with the City of Kadoma to ensure that refuse dumped at illegal sites is collected en-mass and placed where it belongs.