BY RICHARD MUPONDE
GOVERNMENT has embarked on a programme to eliminate illegal dumpsites countrywide to help fight cholera and typhoid and other related diseases with Harare being the starting point.
Speaking at a national clean-up campaign by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Kuwadzana on Friday last week, Environment, Climate and Tourism minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu said the country has witnessed an influx of illegal dumpsites in residential areas and central business districts.
“Your Excellency, we want you to know that as a ministry we have embarked on a national programme to eradicate all illegal dumpsites in the country so that our nation becomes clean.
The programme will see all illegal dumpsites cleared and bins put at designated points so that we keep our towns and cities clean,” he said.
Ndlovu said the national clean-up campaigns would be devolved to provinces in a development that will see Mnangagwa embarking on a whirlwind tour of the country to launch the campaigns.
“The national clean-up campaigns were only being done in Harare since the proclamation of every first Friday of the every month to be a national clean-up day. As a ministry, we have decided that the national launch of the programme be devolved to provinces,” he said.
Harare Metropolitan Affairs minister Oliver Chidawu, who also attended the launch, said Harare would lead the nation in eliminating illegal dumpsites and restore its sunshine city status.
“Kuwadzana becomes the first suburb towards this goal. We want to clear off illegal dumpsites in the city so that we avert outbreak of diseases such as cholera and typhoid,” he said.
Mnangagwa last year proclaimed the first Friday of every month to be a national clean-up day in an effort to keep the country clean and attractive to visitors.
