Zimbabwe Informational Site

Harare City Council has reportedly stopped collecting garbage from most residential areas due to a severe shortage of refuse collection vehicles, NewsDay has learnt. As of Friday, the local authority had 15 refuse collection vehicles on the road with 32 others grounded.

Mayor, Bernard Manyenyeni confirmed the crisis, but said council was making frantic efforts to acquire a new fleet of refuse trucks to cover all the city’s 30 wards.

Government last month approved council’s request to borrow $29 million for procurement of service vehicles after Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere and his Finance counterpart, Patrick Chinamasa, gave the nod to the deal.

In January, the local authority had to battle a typhoid outbreak with over 400 cases that led to at least two deaths. The current fleet of refuse vehicles was acquired in 2010 after council secured a $23 million loan from a local financier. Besides refuse trucks, council also requires skip bins to improve its waste management system.

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