By Perpetua Murungweni
Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) has taken action against Masvingo City Council over the Runyararo West dumpsite which has been affecting nearby residents for a long time now.
WCoZ Masvingo Chapter Coordinator Blessing Chimombo said the petition was to push council to urgently move to the new dumpsite since the old one is affecting nearby suburbs.
“WCoZ Masvingo Chapter submitted a petition draft to Masvingo City Council urging council to urgently move the undesignated dumpsite from Victoria Ranch to the new landfill. The dumpsite is posing serious health risks to residents, outbreak of diseases, environmental degradation, and climate change and affecting communities well-being particularly women,” Chimombo said.
Chimombo said with the petition, WCoZ was safeguarding resident’s rights to health and protecting the environment to climate change.
“The dumpsite’s proximity to residential areas exacerbates health risks and is posing significant threats to public health and environmental sustainability undermining NDS1 and United Nations SDGs. We therefore through this petition request the city of Masvingo to take the issue of moving from the Victoria range dumpsite to a new landfill as a matter of urgency.
“By addressing this we can safeguard women’s health, protect the environment and combat climate change, upholding principles enshrined in the Zimbabwean constitution,” said Chimombo.
Masvingo City Council Mayor Alec Tabe confirmed receiving a petition from WCoZ and said they were working on the matter.
“We received a petition from WCoZ over the dumpsite issue and its effects to the nearby residents. As council we are going to take responsibility to push the process of purchasing the necessary equipment required to the new dumpsite and as for now we are almost done with the procurement of the compactor that is needed to the new dumpsite.
“Council is working on the matter and we are taking the issue seriously because it has become an outcry and we have resolved that council will deploy municipal police so as to reduce some illegal activities carried out by some residents. Above everything the only solution is to close the old dumpsite and open the Cambria farm dumpsite,” Tabe said.
Masvingo City Council secured 10 hectares of land on Cambria Farm which is on the western outskirts of the city for the establishment of the new landfill in 2019 and was set to move there by the end of October the same year.
In October 2022, Acting City Engineer Kudzaishe Mbetu, said council was only left with construction of the site offices which was already underway. He was quoted saying council was going to start using the landfill at the end of the same month, adding that three boreholes had been drilled but only the control borehole had been equipped.
Masvingo City Council in June 2023 invited Vice President Kembo Mohadi to officially open the landfill despite it not being functional until now.
In September 2024 Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) released a report which revealed that council was violating environmental human rights and the right to administrative justice, years after the old dumpsite became cause for concern.
