RESIDENTS of Damafalls, Chipukutu, some parts of Zimre and Ruwa are up in arms against the Ruwa Local board for failing to honor their refuse collection schedule which has resulted in them going for three weeks with piles of garbage at their gates and homes.
By Michael Gwarisa
When this publication visited some households in Damafalls close to Wenera Shopping centre ad some in Phase 2, an unpleasant odor from garbage containers could be sensed from a distance. In some instances, garbage can be seen scattered all over as dogs are now scavenging and emptying the sacks and trash cans of their contents.
Residents who spoke to this publication indicated that a health hazard could be looming as they have gone for three weeks without refuse being collected and should the situation continue, they will soon resort to dumping garbage in open spaces that are yet to be occupied.
This is unlike them, they usually collect on time. However, these past three weeks have been hell, imagine taking sacks of garbage outside every Thursday and putting them back inside for the past three weeks. We no fear for our health, the stench that’s coming from these packs is so unpleasant, we are running out of options,” said a woman who identified herself as Amai Robert.
Speaking to HealthTimes in a Telephone interview, Ruwa Local Board Public Relations Officer, Josephine Mwaitirwa confirmed that the organization was facing operational challenges, hence the disruption in the collection schedule.
“Indeed we have had a few complaints from some of our residents. I can’t say they were many but we had some complaints. The thing is we are having some operational challenges which we hope to address by latest Thursday. We expect that by end of this week, we would have cleared our backlog. One of our trucks is down and the other one was also giving us problems so that kind of gave us a bottleneck in our refuse collection,” said Mwaitirwa.
Ruwa Local Board has three refuse collection trucks which service the entire Ruwa community which over the years has recorded an exponential increase in the number of households and residents, pushing demand for services such as refuse collection up. However, breakdown of a single refuse collection truck may spell doom for the entire refuse collection process.
“When we have issues like this, we normally try and make up. Usually, our schedule does not ruin into the weekend but in instances like these, we usually g o all out to ensure we clear the backlog.”
