By Tatenda Chambwe
A few hours after the heavy rains, contents of an illegal dumpsite, spill over to cover Boterekwa Street in Harare’s Dzivarasekwa 3.
Maggots on the other hand encroach the doorsteps, if not forcing themselves to cohabit with residents who live along this landfill.
Twenty-two year old Lynette Phiri is now numb of sweeping the maggots off her lodging’s doorstep back to the landfill.
Born and bred in Dzivarasekwa, popularly known as DZ, Lynette is married with four kids. She does not recall when last the refuse collection truck from the Harare City Council came to her area.
Like other neglected suburbs, Dzivarasekwa lacks basic sanitation and hygiene services. Raw sewage and landfills are the order of the day.
“We are living with a ticking time bomb. This landfill breeds a lot of flies. Even if we use disinfectants to sanitize our homes, these flies continue to enter our homes because of this landfill,” said Lynette.
“We constantly suffer from diarrhea because of these flies which are caused by uncollected garbage. We fear that this garbage will cause an outbreak of cholera and if this happens we will be wiped out.”
Anna Nyoni, another DZ resident decided to plough on the landfill to control the garbage dumped at her place of residence.
“As the most affected we try to stop people from dumping the garbage near our homes but it is not working since most people come at night and dump their refuse by the roadside,” she said.
“During these heavy rains maggots come to our doorsteps and this is affecting our children as they are no longer able to play outdoors because of the maggots that breed on the landfill.”
Having old toilets and sewer systems designed for small populations, according to another resident, Tim Shashiko also exposes his neighborhood to flies.
Illegal dumpsite along Boterekwa Street, Dzivarasekwa 3. Image Courtesy of Tatenda Chambwe
However, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so they say, since others are benefiting from this landfill. People from different parts of Dzivarasekwa are making a living by collecting plastic beverage bottles and scrap metal for recycling.
Then Harare City spokesperson, Michael Chideme admitted that council’s failure to collect refuse is caused by depleted refuse trucks. Council only has few vehicles available which cannot cater for every suburb.
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume in his end of year speech admitted that council is in dire straits, and is failing to provide basic hygienic services to residents.
