Masvingo struggles with refuse collection as vehicles break down

Masvingo City Council is facing challenges in refuse collection due to a shortage of service vehicles, leaving some communities with uncollected waste and prompting the emergence of illegal dumpsites.

The concerns were raised by councillors during a recent Full Council meeting while deliberating on the Health and Housing Committee report, with Ward 6 councillor, Wilstaff Sitemere, calling for improved communication from council on disruptions to refuse collection.

He said residents were increasingly frustrated by the failure to collect waste as scheduled, adding that a new illegal dumpsite had emerged while council was still working to decommission an existing one.

“Your Worship, we have a great challenge that refuse is not being collected as expected in our communities. What is worse is that we are not receiving any form of communication from the relevant authorities,” he said.

“We now have an illegal dumpsite that has come up while we are still seized with efforts of decommissioning the one that we already have.”

Responding, Ward 3 councillor, Maxwell Madhuna, who sits in the committee, said the local authority was struggling with a shortage of refuse compactors, with three of its vehicles having broken down.

He said council had previously resolved to purchase two additional compactors, which the Town Clerk had indicated were expected to be delivered soon.

“We are left with one refuse compactor but now we have four of them serving the communities. The Housing Committee made a resolution sometime back that council needed to buy two compactors. I had an engagement with the Town Clerk and he assured us that two had already been bought and were meant to be delivered soon,” he said.

Cllr Madhuna said council had outsourced additional vehicles to sustain refuse collection while awaiting the delivery of the newly purchased compactors.

“We are appealing as a committee to the people to understand that we have a crisis of vehicles. Masvingo needs five compactors,” he said.

“But at the moment we have only four. Three that belong to the council are broken down, but we managed to outsource. We are currently operating on four, while we await the arrival of the two that were purchased by council.”

Source: Masvingo struggles with refuse collection as vehicles break down — CITEZW

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