Mvurwi Town: A sustainable waste management model.

By Mutsawashe Museredza.

In the year 2009, Mvurwi got itself on the map for being the cleanest town in Zimbabwe. This was an accolade awarded by a survey by EMA(Environmental Management Agency).At that time Mr Mazai was on the reins of the town`s top management as Town Secretary. Since then Mvurwi has been scooping the accolade and no budget restrictions are put on anything to do with hygiene of the town. On that regard it have had support of International community through the Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) programme supported by Sweden. This have seen the town engaging in workshops to educate every resident of the town ,to remain astute to cleanliness standards of the town.

The WASH programme even supports drama, poetry and music to uphold the standards of cleanliness of the town. All these activities majors on management of waste as the key to keep the town spick and span on the apex as the cleanliest in the country. l being a resident ,l don`t reserve my comments ,in appreciation of council`s efforts to keep the town clean. This makes it a distinct and rare place to be, especially the way waste is treated. Its really becoming competitive to meet world class standards as some major cities like l witnessed when travelled to Abu Dhabi. This city is a model city that one as per the architect`s impression. Though still need a lot to be desired infrastructural. In comparison with our own capital city Harare ,where waste is left to rot and decompose.

Mvurwi town council ensure waste is cleared and dumped to its site regularly. In turn this cleanliness had made the city`s untamed resources, lucrative to lure investors ,who are almost on a stampede to invest in Zimbabwe. The current management of His Excellency E.D Mnangagwa ,with his mantra Zimbabwe is open for business, Mvurwi stand a chance as centre of choice for investment .Especially in the agriculture sector, with the vast and fertile soils surrounding ,coupled by generally good rainfall patterns with this year having reached record high rainfall countrywide on several occassions. Moreover to ease pressure on door to door bin collection, there are community bins. These are dotted around the Mvurwi Suwoguru Township and Rusununguko Township. Those sensitive to cleanliness ,to maintain a clean home they dump their bins on their own.

Weekly community voluntary cleaning.

Regular paper picking is done, especially in the town ,contracted personnel and permanent ,l always witness them picking up papers Sewer systems for the Suwoguru location is the one that still poses much problems, due to old pipes, and the system itself. This happens mostly when it rains ,it automatically fills up and the pressure, results in pipe bursts. When they burst ,they become a hazard ,as children play around contamination may occur which may give rise to water borne diseases. The new locations are well manned and care has been done to design the system to world class standards that ensure safe sewer waste disposal. This system majors on septic tanks individual and mass.

At the dumping site, there is still need to work on waste segregation. However it have provided employment to waste recycling industries .The one Mr Hwengwere have benefited in a greater way from this recyclable waste, the non -biodegradable waste. He have even been engaged with Megapack Zimbabwe to supply them the polyvinyl chlorides wastes.

On the contrary ,there are areas that need immediate attention. If they continue cast a blind eye on Stadium, Mvurwi community Stadium., this may compromise the accolade. With all the backing Of Non-Governmental Organisation(NGOs in maintaining the cleanliness of

Mvurwi. There is need of serious considerations to refurbish the ablution facilities, this is a purely public place that have even have legislative jurisdiction under the Public and Social Amenities Act. There is urgent need to refurbish the ablution facilities. This is a public place that hold public functions of high magnitude. For starters servicing the already there items ,building structures to be painted as they work on a complete overhaul. If this is left unattended the stadium will soon become an eyesore. With the fruit and vegetable market in the proximal ,this is posing a life threatening hazard of contamination of farm produce from the surrounding farmers.