Clean City seeks to restore Harare’s sunshine city status

CASSAVA Smartech’s subsidiary Clean City Africa has intensified efforts to restore Harare’s sunshine status through effective waste management.

Lovemore Nyatsine, Clean City Africa’s chief executive

This comes as the capital city, which has seen its standards plummeting in the past two decades due to lack of investment and political interference, is working hard to achieve a world class status by 2025 by partnering with corporates.

Lovemore Nyatsine, Clean City Africa’s chief executive, said waste management has become an area of major public health and environmental concern, with city residents battling the scourge of mounting refuse, poor sanitation, and lack of clean water and mushrooming garbage dumps, among other health hazards.

“At Clean City we believe that addressing such challenges in our society requires a collaborative approach and effort from all of us – the private sector, local governments, residents and everyone – because at the end of the day, we are affected by the adverse health and environmental effects of uncollected refuse and the breakdown of infrastructure, which give rise to diseases and other perils,” he said.

This was after Clean City had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) with City of Harare that will allow the two parties to collaborate in service delivery to the city.

Areas of collaboration under the MOU include refuse collection, dumpsites clearance, repair and maintenance of City of Harare refuse trucks along with construction and management of waste facilities in areas identified by both parties.

The two entities will also embark on joint community health initiatives, including waste management awareness campaigns, with the objective of reducing waste and water borne diseases – including cholera and typhoid – that have plagued the city in the recent past.

The tie-up between the two parties represents a Public Private Partnership (PPP). PPPs are seen among development experts as key in delivering sustainable solutions to the many challenges bedeviling the local authorities and national economies at large.

Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba

Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba hailed the partnership as an answer to residents’ outcry over the menace of litter and refuse, erratic baggage disposal and the attendant risk of disease outbreaks in the city.

“This partnership will contribute to a clean and healthy city for our residents and it will also help create employment and grow the economy of the city,” he said.

The Mayor thanked the Econet group and Cassava Smartech for being proactive in offering sustainable service and solutions to the City of Harare.

He committed to work tirelessly with any willing corporate partners to restore Harare’s Sunshine City status.

The Mayor also urged the media to help raise public awareness about the benefits and public healthcare dividend of keeping the city clean.

Clean City has already started collecting refuse in the greater part of Harare’s Northern and Eastern suburbs as well as parts of the Southern suburbs, covering more than 280 000 households. The company has also decommissioned more than 300 dumpsites.

Clean City was launched last year with the goal of providing sustainable, technology-driven waste management services in urban areas in partnership with local authorities and other private players.

It has more recently expanded into Clean Water delivery services, among other services. It uses a mobile platform to connect households and workplaces with private waste collection firms, using the Vaya Africa App.

The company has in the past played a pivotal role in fighting the outbreak of cholera and in mobilizing communities to keep their environments clean.