The City of Mutare has resolved to ban the use of farm bricks for both commercial and residential construction in line with a directive issued by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA).
EMA gave the order in 2016, and following a recent full council meeting, councillors took the decision to comply.
263Chat quotes Mutare Town Clerk Joshua Maligwa as saying:
We are obliged as a council to comply with the EMA order issued in June 2016 which then set a deadline of December 2016 for the council to stop using farm bricks for institutional, commercial and residential construction in the city of Mutare.
EMA has made this decision because the use of farm bricks promotes destructive practices to the environment particularly rampant deforestation as large quantities of firewood are used in the manufacturing of farm bricks.
As a progressive council we also have the master plan which envisages transforming Mutare into a smart city and how then do we reconcile the use of farm bricks and construction of story buildings.
Maligwa revealed that Mutare City Council has a 35-hectare site that has been set aside for brickmaking lying idle.
He also revealed that the fear of litigation after violating the EMA Act has forced the council to comply with the EMA directive.
In other countries, 3/4 of the house is made of timber often imported and some local but you never hear people crying of depleted timber. Here in Zimbabwe, there is no management of anything. The implication is farm bricks make a strong house, but how do we make farm bricks in a sustainable way? Burn coal, even if it was to be made available, you still pump Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is responsible for climate change. Where does the buck stop genteman? You cut the trees to make farm bricks, one is depleting plant life that sucks carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. You mine coal from Hwange, you are destroying the environment there big time, leaving big pits, emitting gases into the atmosphere that escape when coal is exposed to surface, never mind when coal is burnt in a thermal power station to produce electricity. Whichever way as the population increases and our needs, we are killing our mother earth. This then seeks ways of managing things, unlike simple bans from EMA. I suggest, woodlots where timber is cut and forests replaced, timber cut and delivered to the brick makers. The problem then arises, do the brick makers want to purchase wood or they are poor people who just want to raise cash by scrounging around, cutting any free growing tree? Please lets think deeply.