By Vumani Mthiyane
The mining town of Gwanda has finally complied with the Environmental Management Act Statutory Instrument 6 of 2007 by constructing a new landfill site to properly dispose of its solid waste.
In the past years, the municipality has been resorting to a dump site for waste management which is an archaic model and is prone to health hazards especially during the rainy seasons.
The dump site is located just opposite Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic College.
Gwanda Town Clerk, Ms Priscilla Nkala confirmed the new development saying the local authority will modernise their waste management system as they seek to attain a city status in the near future.
According to a document which was seen by CITE, “The Municipality of Gwanda compliant landfill was constructed by the local authority with its implementing partner, World Vision-Zimbabwe after doing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in 2016.
“World Vision supported the local authority with 300 000 Australian dollars for the project while the municipality contributed $70 000 towards the project.”
The document also revealed that the local authority engages Kadoma Municipality to construct the new landfill site.
“Since costs were too high, Municipality of Gwanda opted to engage Kadoma City on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis to construct the landfill. On the other hand, some stakeholders provided clay, quarry and stones at minimal costs. The total costs for the project were reduced to $170 000,” reads part of the document.
The Town Clerk said plans are at an advanced stage to commission the new site.
“All things being equal, this project was supposed to be completed in December 2018. However, the delay in commissioning the landfill is due to lack of equipment such as bulldozers, landfill compactors, front end loaders and rollers,” she said.
The Mayor, Councillor Jastone Mazhale also confirmed the development.
Currently, the municipality is using a tractor for refuse collection which is not up to standard considering that some of the refuse is lost while in transit to the dumpsite.
