While Harare and Bulawayo argue about ministerial directives and concession deals, a different approach to waste is starting just across the border. In Lusaka's Bauleni compound, residents, the city council and development partners have begun writing a waste management plan together, starting with the community rather than the contract.
It is worth a close look, because Bauleni's problems will sound very familiar to anyone living in Mbare, Epworth, Cowdray Park or Sakubva.
What Lusaka launched
On 17 September, the People's Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia (PPHPZ), the German development agency GIZ and Lusaka City Council launched the process that will produce the Bauleni Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, the Lusaka Times reports. The launch was held at Prince Takamado Primary School.
GIZ's head of programmes for its CitiZen+D work, Patric Schlager, said Bauleni generates an estimated 13,000 kilograms of solid waste every day, leading to accumulation, blocked drains and health risks. He said the situation requires a coordinated approach, which led to the partnership model behind the plan.
Speaking on behalf of Town Clerk Oliver Muuka, the council's director of public health, Victor Kagoli, said effective waste management needs households, businesses, institutions, waste collectors, community leaders and residents all involved. He urged Bauleni residents to take collective responsibility and help shape the plan. PPHPZ's programmes coordinator, Melanie Chirwa, said the plan should be a practical framework that reflects the realities, priorities and aspirations of the community, and should be seen as a tool rather than merely a document.
Why this model matters
Most waste plans are written for a city and handed down to neighbourhoods. Bauleni's is being written for one compound with the people in it. That matters for three practical reasons.
First, residents know where the dumping hotspots are, which drains block first and which days collection fails. Second, a plan people helped write is more likely to be followed. Third, it gives informal collectors and small recyclers a seat at the table, instead of being cleared out when a bigger operator arrives.
Zimbabwe has already done a version of this
Mbare offers a Zimbabwean proof that community-led pressure works. Residents have worked through Accountability Lab Zimbabwe's CivActs model since 2020, and a 2022 survey of their own neighbours found that 51 percent of those asked said refuse was never collected. They took that evidence to the City of Harare and EMA through community briefings, radio and infographics. By September 2023, the suburb's illegal dump sites had fallen from 81 to 20, and Mbare came off Harare's list of garbage hotspots, Accountability Lab reports.
Bulawayo has seen community efforts too. A Roncalli International Foundation project in the city has focused on awareness campaigns, training and clean-ups, and plans to install 500 bins in targeted areas and set up a deposit system for recyclable waste with local recycling companies, working alongside EMA.
How it fits the current debate
The contrast with the Geo Pomona discussion in Bulawayo is clear. There, the solution arrived with the company already chosen and a one-week deadline. A stakeholders' meeting hosted by the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association responded by asking for much of what Bauleni is doing: baseline data on air and water quality, open information on tariffs and fees, and a place for existing waste pickers in the new system, CITE reports.
The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. A large operator may still be the right answer for a city's landfill. But the Bauleni model suggests that for collection, recycling and keeping streets clean in dense suburbs, the plan works better when the people living there help write it.
What Zimbabwean suburbs could borrow
- A neighbourhood waste plan, drawn up with the ward councillor, residents' association and local collectors.
- A community survey of collection and hotspots, like Mbare's, to give the plan real data.
- A role for existing waste pickers and buy-back centres, so recycling grows instead of being displaced.
- A development partner or NGO to support the process, as GIZ is doing in Lusaka.
BinGo will follow how Bauleni's plan develops, and we would like to hear from any Zimbabwean residents' association trying something similar.
Sources
- PPHPZ, GIZ launch solid waste management plan, Lusaka Times
- A Successful Fight for Effective Waste Management: Mbare's Victory, Accountability Lab Zimbabwe
- Raising awareness of waste management in Zimbabwe, Roncalli International Foundation
- MP challenges Geo Pomona deal for Bulawayo waste management, CITE
Written by Rufaro
Plain-language guides to getting rid of anything in Zimbabwe, properly.
