Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart has roped in schools in the local authority’s clean-up campaign drive.
Since assuming office after the August elections, the mayor has been holding clean-up campaigns that continue to gather momentum with residents and corporates joining in.
Recently, he met with school heads as part of the efforts to incorporate them into the clean-up campaign drive.
The meeting was driven by the need to change the culture towards littering in the city.
“It was a meeting between me and headmasters and headmistresses of government, council and private schools. The purpose of the meeting was to convey two messages, firstly to ask schools to be involved in the clean-up campaign. I have already had meetings with church leaders, the business community, so schools were the next target” said Coltart in an interview with CITE.
He said they also discussed how headmasters can incorporate in the syllabus more effective means of training and teaching young people not to litter and to discuss problems that schools are facing around litter.
“About 100 heads came to the meeting in the small city hall and it was very productive for example, most of the schools had a challenge with sewerage which is not being repaired. We discussed means of prioritizing the repair of those particular sewerages in schools,” said Coltart.
He said it was important for every stakeholder in the city to be part of the campaign. “So it’s part of the drive that every resident, business, can at the very least clean outside their premises even though they are not responsible for the dirt and the litter, that will assist the city.”
Coltart said it is unfortunate that the young generation has grown up not knowing a tidy city and that litter it’s not just unsightly but it also contributes to health risks and undermines the city’s water drainage and sewerage systems.
