Rubbish mountain in Kaunda Square ... where is the Councillor? How about recycling? We happened to have been driving in Kaunda Square yesterday morning and saw this rather large heap of uncollected rubbish in one corner of what appears to be the sports grounds of Kaunda Square Secondary School. The heap is just off the newly constructed road and is very prominent. From our experience of reporting on rubbish in Munali Constituency, we can guess that this rubbish heap is over a month old. The lonely skip bin that the council has placed at the rubbish dump is completely inadequate to cater for the needs of the residents. One would say that it is a token skip bin. If it were emptied on a daily basis, it would suffice, but we know that the council has no capacity to collect rubbish daily in Munali Constituency, or anywhere else for that matter. Unfortunately, uncollected rubbish is something that has been forced upon us to accept as normal in our neighbourhoods. We were not there 50 years ago, when Zambia became independent, but we doubt that such scenes were there at independence. We doubt that our colonial rulers, whatever their shortcomings, would have allowed such health hazards to go unattended. The nationalists would have used it as another reason to fight them. So, is this what our forefathers fought for? For us to live in squalor, brought upon us by our African government? Is being independent synonymous with living in filth? Should we accept this, just because we are Africans? Why are we failing to come up with community initiatives to deal with rubbish? As we have said before, there are lots of recyclable materials in rubbish – plastic bottles, glass bottles, paper, metal, etc. If value were added to rubbish, rubbish heaps would disappear instantly. Our civic leaders, like area Councillors, should take the lead in advocating for community based, sustainable strategies for dealing with rubbish. Hundreds of youth, women and men would easily be employed to collect and process rubbish for value addition. It can be done! Somebody must take the lead ... especially out elected leaders.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:16:24 +0000
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