Harare City Council Suspends Garbage Collection Services

Harare City Council has suspended garbage collection services in many parts of the capital. The suspension is reported to have been necessitated by inadequacy of garbage vehicles and scarcity of fuel.

This was revealed by Lisben Chipfunde, manager of environment and amenities during a town hall meeting with residents yesterday.  Chipfunde said most of their fleet was either being repaired or there was not enough fuel.

Chipfunde reported that the council has not been complying with environmental regulations by suspensding refuse collection services. He said:

Ideally, we should be covering at least 36 areas to be regarded as compliant with environmental regulations, but we only managed to cover 23 areas in January, meaning we were only 46 percent compliant. We also had challenges of fuel shortages, the week-long stay-away and an old fleet. In the following months, we improved to 57 percent compliance.

The environment manager also revealed that the local government ceased buying bins last year. To resume buying these bins, the council would need approval from the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe since prices they have new sets of prices.

Chipfunde said that the council’s fleet of 15 trucks that is still stuck in South Africa can only be imported once the central government releases $1,3 million to pay for duty.

Meanwhile, the council intends to introduce a morning and afternoon shift approach to curb the situation.

Combined Harare Residents Association acting CEO Loreen Mupasiri attributes Harare City’s poor service delivery to insufficiency of resources and poor management of available resources.

Related:

• Harare City Council Seeks To Demolish Illegal Settlements
• Retrenchment Scandal Costs Harare City Council $2 Million

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