Council introduces night-time CBD garbage collection

The Chronicle

Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) will from Monday introduce a system to collect refuse in the city centre at night, a new drive meant to reclaim the city’s former glory as one of the smartest cities in the Sadc region.

Council will however continue collecting garbage during the day in the residential areas as per schedule.

Bulawayo was once dubbed the cleanest city in the Sadc region but has become a pale shadow of its former self. Heaps of uncollected garbage has become the order of the day in the city centre.

BCC has run several campaigns to clean the city but the efforts seem to be hitting a brick wall.
In September, council organised a week-long spring-cleaning where it was targeting some of the garbage hot spots. The council blames the presence of illegal vendors for the dirt in the city but with no alternative vending bays, council seems to be fighting a losing battle.

Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube yesterday announced that council is introducing an 8pm to 6am refuse collection schedule for the city centre with effect from Monday.

“The City of Bulawayo would like to advise its valued residents that it will be commencing night time refuse collection in the central business district with effect from Monday, 21 November 2022. The collection will be done from 8pm to 6am. If for any reason, refuse is not collected on the scheduled day, residents are advised that the collection will be done on the next scheduled day hence they should keep the bins within their properties and not dump the garbage,” said Mr Dube.

He said residents should ensure that refuse collection teams have access to buildings during scheduled times.

Mr Christopher Dube

Mr Dube said those who fail to have their refuse collected will be forced to dispose of it at their cost.

“Where necessary, property owners can contact the City of Bulawayo Cleansing Section during the day to make arrangements on accessibility of refuse bins at night. Properties that are not accessible will not have their refuse collected and the owners might be required to take the refuse to the disposal site at their own cost,” he said.

Mr Dube said property owners in the central business district are reminded that by law they are required to place refuse in bins.

“Refuse should be placed in bins or plastic receptacles and kept in a tidy state ready for collection by council. Failure to adhere to this might lead to the property owners being prosecuted,” said Mr Dube.

In the past council resisted night garbage collection saying it was costly and it also didn’t have adequate resources.

Mr Dube however said yesterday that the level of dirt in the city has left the local authority with no option but to introduce the night refuse collection.

“There is lot of garbage and the situation has been worsened by the fact that it has started raining and we cannot ignore this.

Gabbage Pile Up in Allies

This is something that we are doing temporarily while we put other strategies in place to remove garbage from the city centre,” said Mr Dube.

He said council has also roped in community truckers to assist in the collection of refuse in the city centre.

Mr Dube said council is also in the process of buying two refuse collection compactors.

“We are also buying two refuse compactors after being authorised by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ),” said Mr Dube.

Bulawayo City Council (BCC)

He said council was working towards removing illegal vendors from the city centre. Mr Dube said the municipality has engaged various arms of Government to permanently remove vendors in the city centre.

“Those other programmes like spring cleaning are just temporary measures. The biggest operation that we need to do is to remove illegal vending from the city centre,” said Mr Dube. — [email protected]

Article Source: The Chronicle

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