Kapiri Mposhi Town Council has cleared over 1000 tons of historic garbage that had accumulated overtime in its five major markets in the district.
The garbage which has been collecting for close to a year now has been cleared to provide a safe and healthy trading environment in the trading sites.
The council has collected garbage from Old, Tambalale, Ndeke, Riverside and Kawama markets and plans to extend the exercise to trading sites in the outskirts of the district.
Kapiri Mposhi Town Council Chairman, Brilliant Munyeke has told ZANIS that the garbage clearing exercise was conducted to improve the trading environment and prevent the outbreak of diseases such as cholera.
Mr Munyeke explained that lack of reliable transportation has been hampering the collection of garbage by the council from trading sites in the district.
“The traders and marketers were complaining about the garbage situation in the markets….. This garbage has been there for a long time and we are going to collect this type of garbage from all the markets,” Mr Munyeke said.
Meanwhile, Mr Munyeke has directed council management to be proactive to avoid waiting until garbage accumulates to unmanageable levels in trading and public places before it is collected.
The council chairman observed that the accumulation of uncollected garbage was increasing the susceptibility of people to diseases.
Council Public Relations Officer, Chris Mulaliki has disclosed that the local authority is in the process of engaging a solid waste management franchise Company to collect garbage on commission from markets, households, and public institutions in the district.
Mr Mulaliki explained that currently the local authority has no capacity to collect garbage from all the markets and households in the district adding that once engaged the franchise will improve solid waste management and disposal in the area.
He added that currently households are using open burning and burying as methods of waste disposal within their premises as the council does not collect garbage from compounds.
”At the moment we only collect garbage from some markets and shops that have subscribed to the service but we will be soon engaging the private sector companies to help us collect and dispose of waste,” Mr Mulaliki said.
And Mr Mulenga has called on the council to be collecting the waste on a routine basis to prevent garbage from accumulating to unmanageable levels.
New market Chairperson, Eustas Mulenga has however commended the council for collecting the waste which he said was repelling customers due to the bad odour in the affected markets.
Meanwhile, Mr Mulenga has implored marketers to comply and pay market levies to help the council in provision of services that include refuse collection from markets.
” We should also be willing to pay levies because the council needs this money to collect this garbage timely …. Sometimes the council fails to collect this garbage due to lack of fuel and we are somehow o blame because we don’t want to pay levies,” Mr Mulenga said.
That’s what they are supposed to do so it’s not headline news.
I traveled from livingstone to Kitwe and it seems like the entire country doesn’t know how to deal with garbage disposal. I found a big mess in Mazabuka, Chama had rubbish everywhere Lusaka was a big rubbish collection Kabwe an eyesore. It looked like people were waiting for Roy Welensky to come and show them how to do things. Why do we have a ministry of local government?