Zimbabwe News Update
spiked
9 min read
Getting yourTrinity Audioplayer ready…Writes Nixon NyikadzinoAs the alarm rings at 4 am, Elizabeth (not her real name) wakes up, and she goes straight to the community restrooms to wash her face and brush her teeth. The next thing, she has to wake up her two sons, who are between the ages of 10 and 14, and a sweltering day begins.Elizabeth is a mother of two sons who was left to take care of her two sons after her husband passed on, 7 years ago. She says she tried every trick in the book to make a living. From being a bus conductor during the COVID-19 crisis, a housemaid, a green vegetables vendor, you name it.
It was only until she failed to pay her monthly rentals for more than three months and got evicted that her ice opened, but it was through sheer luck.“I was left homeless with my two boys and had five dollars only on me. I had hit a brick wall in life, and the only option I had in my mind was either to sell my body as a prostitute or take my life, says Elizabeth with a frowning face.”After enduring two nights sleeping in a shed with her two sons at one of the shopping centers in Kambuzuma, she bumped into a young man who was in his thirties, who looked unkempt, fetid, but unmoved.She says what the young man told him was something she had never thought about. Going around residential areas picking plastic waste at dumpsites?“Yes, that is what I do to my sister.
As you can see, I am surviving,” the young man told her with a straight face and unapologetic.For Elizabeth, it was a clarion call to sober up and heed the advice. He would wake up her two sons every morning, move around the Rugare suburbs, Kambuzuma, and then Warren Park, before cashing out the plastic waste to a Chinese Company that specializes in solid waste recycling and reuse.The young Samaritan had to lend Eliza his other waste collection trolley for her to enter the business. From there, she says, though with minimum hiccups, she persevered, and she is now a master of her own destiny.The mother of two says the Chinese company pays thirty cents per Kilogram. On a good day, Elizabeth and her two sons can collect at least 90 kgs, which translates to US$9 per day.
She says they can buy food for the family and ensure that her kids go to School in the afternoon. Though not yet enough to pay for their accommodation, Elizabeth is beaming with confidence that one day she will be able to buy a residential stand of her own.“If I find sponsorship to turn the plastic waste we collect into plastic products such as buckets, dishes, and cups, though at a smaller scale, I will be able to achieve my dream of having a roof over my head, she says.The life story of Elizabeth and her two sons is alien to the residents of Warren Park, who wake up early in the morning before the sun rises to burn waste at unsanctioned dumpsites.
She says her heart bleeds as she wakes up to collect plastic waste, only to find dumpsites filled with solid waste and plastic charcoal.Gogo Machona, a Warren Park resident since 1985, says that since the beginning of the new millennium, service delivery in Harare has gone down. The collection of refuse has become erratic, and the current leaders seem unconcerned.“Havasisina basa nesu ava. Marara tongotopisa kuti tikwanise kurasha mamwe(They no longer have care, and the only solution is to burn the waste). If we don’t do that, the solid waste may increase and, at worst, decompose, causing an untenable odor.
The Geo-Pomona solid waste compactors only come to collect refuse maybe once a month, which leaves us with no option but to burn it “, says Gogo Machona.The 85-year-old granny defends her action without realizing the dangers of burning solid waste. Burning waste contributes to an annual global death toll of between 400,000 and 1 million, as stated in a 2019 report by Tearfund.
This figure is part of the larger problem of air pollution, which the World Health Organization (WHO) attributes to 7 million premature deaths annually from both ambient and household sources, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources posits that burning prohibited materials, such as garbage, plastic, and painted or treated wood, is harmful to the environment because these materials release toxic chemicals that pollute our air. Polluted air can be inhaled by humans and animals, and deposited in the soil and surface water, and on plants.Residue from burning contaminates the soil and groundwater and can enter the human food chain through crops and livestock.
In addition, certain chemicals released by burning can accumulate in the fats of animals and then in humans as we consume meat, fish, and dairy products.Smoke and soot can travel long distances. Odors can be bothersome to people. Both odors and smoke residue can enter houses or can impact anything outside of houses, like cars or hanging laundry. The gases released by open burning can also corrode metal siding and damage paint on buildings.Some of the most dangerous chemicals created and released during burning are those from burning plastics, such as dioxins, which are byproducts formed when chlorine-containing products are burned. Dioxins tend to adhere to the waxy surface of leaves and enter the food chain in this way.
Even if certain types of plastic (such as polyethylene or polypropylene) do not contain chlorine, other materials attached to or burned with the plastic may be a chlorine source.According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) report, burning waste releases methane that is dangerous to health, primarily because methane displaces oxygen and is a precursor to the harmful air pollutantozone. High concentrations of methane can cause asphyxiation, while the ozone form is linked to respiratory issues and premature deaths.Children and the elderly are particularly at risk due to their sensitive respiratory systems. Fetuses and young children are also vulnerable to the effects of toxins like lead and mercury, which can disrupt nervous and other developing systems.
Pollutants and toxic ash can settle into the soil and water, contaminating drinking water sources and entering the food chain through crops.Experts and practitioners in waste management continue to encourage the use of best waste management practices, such as the 3Rs approach, where residents canreduceconsumption of plastics,reuseplastic items, andrecycleplastics through mechanical and chemical methods.
This best practice also requires proper disposal, improving recycling infrastructure, and developing sustainable alternatives and policies to minimize generation.Effective management also requires proper disposal, improving recycling infrastructure, and developing sustainable alternatives and policies to minimize generation.Mr Hardlife Mudzingwa, Director of Community Water Alliance, has been working with Communities around Harare. His organization has been setting community water points and is now working on putting in place Solid waste collection, sorting, and recycling and reuse centers. Currently, they have a pilot waste management center in Glenview.“There is a need for a community-based solid management system that reduces waste, reuses waste, recycles waste, and recovers waste.
Community-based solid waste centers are needed to avoid the burning of waste. That includes biodegradable waste and other waste, which includes plastics. For biodegradable waste, we need to have compositing facilities at local level, and for plastics and papers, we need recycling centers at the local level to address that problem”, Mudzingwa emphasizes.Decomposing solid waste can be managed through composting for organic matter or anaerobic digestion for both organic and wet waste, which converts it into a usable product like fertilizer or biogas. At a household level, individuals cansegregate wasteinto biodegradable, recyclable, and non-recyclable categories, then compost the organic materials or support municipal recycling programs.
Other methods for managing decomposing waste include landfilling and incineration, though these have environmental drawbacks like pollution or limited capacity.While all these methods of solid waste disposal and management are available, Residents of Warren Park and other surrounding suburbs continue to use burning as the only solution. The habit is slowly becoming an entrenched culture in Warren Park without paying attention to the health hazards associated with this unorthodox practice.As the sun sets, Elizabeth and her two sons are on their way home, rich, though not yet enough to buy a residential stand, but still celebrating and energized to go an extra mile to make a living through plastic waste collection.
But for Gogo Machona and her Warren Park brigade, they wait for the nocturnal hours to once again pounce and do their unorthodox ritual of burning solid waste. Their sleep is a devil’s den, enmeshed in hallucinations, smog, and endurable smoke odor.
Getting yourTrinity Audioplayer ready…
As the alarm rings at 4 am, Elizabeth (not her real name) wakes up, and she goes straight to the community restrooms to wash her face and brush her teeth. The next thing, she has to wake up her two sons, who are between the ages of 10 and 14, and a sweltering day begins.
Elizabeth is a mother of two sons who was left to take care of her two sons after her husband passed on, 7 years ago. She says she tried every trick in the book to make a living. From being a bus conductor during the COVID-19 crisis, a housemaid, a green vegetables vendor, you name it. It was only until she failed to pay her monthly rentals for more than three months and got evicted that her ice opened, but it was through sheer luck.
“I was left homeless with my two boys and had five dollars only on me. I had hit a brick wall in life, and the only option I had in my mind was either to sell my body as a prostitute or take my life, says Elizabeth with a frowning face.”
After enduring two nights sleeping in a shed with her two sons at one of the shopping centers in Kambuzuma, she bumped into a young man who was in his thirties, who looked unkempt, fetid, but unmoved.
She says what the young man told him was something she had never thought about. Going around residential areas picking plastic waste at dumpsites?
“Yes, that is what I do to my sister. As you can see, I am surviving,” the young man told her with a straight face and unapologetic.
