By Staff Reporter
Local water and sanitation rights advocacy group, Community Water Alliance (CWA) has unveiled an ambitious plan to address the city’s escalating solid waste management challenges, citing inadequate control measures and limited resources to match the growing waste volumes in Harare’s suburbs.
In a statement, CWA outlined its mission to curb the adverse effects of the city’s overwhelmed waste systems, which they attribute to a linear “collect, transport, and throw-away” model.
The approach, the advocacy organization argued, perpetuates the misconception of waste as a burdensome byproduct rather than a potential resource in the production and recovery cycle.
“Community Water Alliance views solid waste management challenges in Harare as failure of the linear non-cyclical way of treating solid waste which is anchored on the ‘collect, transport and throw-away’ approach which views solid waste as an evil left-over rather than being part of cycle of production, consumption and recovery,” the statement read.
The initiative highlights empowering women, who disproportionately shoulder the burden of domestic solid waste management under societal norms.
By integrating women into waste recovery and recycling enterprises, CWA aims to foster gender equity and create economic opportunities.
“Through this intervention, Community Water Alliance intends to achieve the following: Strengthen low-carbon care systems and practices in a holistic manner that help Harare communities to be better prepared to manage impacts of methane emissions in a gender transformative way. To establish such a care economy, waste enterprises for women will be established,” CWA said.
CWA’s intervention prioritizes reducing methane emissions and mitigating climate pollutants by introducing community-based waste recovery and recycling infrastructure. T
his includes composting biodegradable materials and recycling plastics and paper to create a sustainable system.
“Strengthen capacity of stakeholders on the implementation of short-lived climate pollutants mitigation actions and risk reduction processes. Finance and operationalize mechanisms that support construction of community-based waste recovery and recycling infrastructure for composting of biodegradable waste and recycling of plastic and papers,” said the organisation
CWA expressed optimism about its collaboration with the City of Harare, aiming to eliminate the solid waste crisis that has plagued the city for years.
“CWA remain committed to this cause and we are grateful and hopeful that our partnership with City of Harare will totally remove all challenges on solid waste management in the city,” the organization said.
As Harare grapples with an ever-growing waste management dilemma, CWA’s initiative offers a roadmap for sustainable waste practices and gender-inclusive solutions to an issue that affects every corner of the city.
