By Tariro Moyo
The Harare City council has neglected its Glen View residents for more than eight months by not collecting garbage, exposing residents to outbreak of diseases. This came out during a media tour that was conducted by Environmental Management Agency (EMA).
Tellingly, a resident who sell chickens at Glen View 1 shopping center, said city council trucks last came to collect garbage in the area around June last year. This has left people with no option but to come and dump garbage from their homes at the shopping center.
“We have tried to talk to them and nothing has materialized, but we pay taxes yet the services we receive from the council are very scarce. We have even tried to burn the rubbish just to minimize garbage but now we cannot burn because of the rains.
“This is a threat to our health because as we can see most people sell their products here and the water that is swelling from the garbage is flowing all over.”
The residents asked EMA to engage city council to find ways of collecting garbage from locations to required places. One resident who was present at the scene just shouted in a local language that, “Maporisa eZRP neekucouncil vanongogona kungoshanda makombi chete.”
EMA spokesperson, Mr Steady Kangata, who was leading the tour, said that the time for engagement with city council is over but we can only take them to court.
“We have tried to engage city council but the guys are not cooperative. The time for engagement is over, we can only take them to court.”
He also encouraged some big companies like Delta to come up with a program of collecting used tins with their labels.
