Stephen Chadenga
Gweru City mayor Martin Chivhoko has appealed to residents to restore the city’s clean pride status saying a dirty environmental not only breeds diseases but discouraged investment.
Speaking at the 730th ordinary council meeting, Chivhoko urged residents to desist from littering the environment and to practice proper waste disposal at all places in the city.
“I want to make a passionate appeal to every resident of Gweru, let us keep our city clean at all costs,”Chivhoko said.
“Cleanliness is not merely about aesthetics, it is about health, dignity and pride.
“A dirty city breeds diseases, discourages investment and diminishes our collective self-worth. I therefore urge every household, every business and every individual to take personal responsibility for the environment around them. Let us refrain from littering, let us use designated dumping sites and let us revive the spirit of community clean up days that once made our neighbourhood the envy of the nation.”
The Midlands capital mayor also called on residents to stop dumping objects in the sewer system saying blockages were a major cause of environmental pollution and disease outbreaks in the city.
“They (sewer blockages) are often caused by objects that should never enter the sewer system such as nappies, plastics, sanitary items, cooking oil and debris,”he said.
He urged residents to immediately report sewer blockages in their areas so that council can timeously attend to such anomalies.
Gweru Progressive Residents and Ratepayers Development Association Trust executive director, David Chikore weighed in saying residents had a big role to play in keeping the city clean.
“We should educate our residents to have a culture of not dumping litter everywhere,”he said.
Chikore said as the country enters the rainy season there was need for proper waste disposal to avoid water borne disease outbreaks such as cholera and typhoid that have previously affected the city.