Thabiso Nxumalo
Masvingo City Council has said the Cambria Farm landfill will be operational from the end of May, easing the Runyararo West dumpsite which is currently overflowing with solid waste.
Speaking during a Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee tour in Masvingo on March 30, 2022, Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa said the first cell was 60 percent complete and that financial constraints were the reason for slow progress on the project that was set to be completed in November 2021.
“The landfill project is slacking on progress but we are now on 60 percent towards completing the first cell. Funding is our biggest challenge as we are currently using internal council resources.
“We have finished excavating the place and have taken on-board stakeholders such as Environmental Management Services (EMA) to assist through the environmental fund and are advising us all the way and have decided to adopt the Kadoma and Victoria Falls model landfill standards.
“We are projecting that our landfill will have a 30-year lifespan and the whole project for the first disposal cell will cost us ZWL $87 million,” said Eng Mukaratirwa.
He also said they are embarking on a project of selling garbage bins to residents and they are still at crossroads as to how best to roll out the exercise.
“We have so far bought 750 bins that we plan on reselling to residents but we are still considering if we must sell them per order or if we must supply to all residents and bill them.
“We are aware that some residents might misuse them for things like storing water and other purposes instead disposing garbage in them,” added Eng Mukaratirwa.
Cambria Farm landfill would lead to a marked shift from the USE OF OLD Runyararo West dumpsite which is posing a great health hazard to residents as waste is spilling to the residential area.
