Uncollected garbage soiling Lusaka CBD

LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes THE Central Business District (CBD) has continued to look dirty with garbage piling because the Lusaka City Council (LCC) does not collect solid waste as much as they should, vendors have complained. The vendors said they  were trying their best to ensure that they swept the CBD to avoid being chased from the streets and that the major setback they had was the LCC failing to collect solid work in good time after the vendors cleaned the CBD and put the waste in one area. In separate interviews, one of the vendors Clarence Kabaso said the vendors were working but the problem was with the Council when it came to garbage collections they were not very effective.   “For the last two months every last Saturday of the month after the vendors sweep there is no  Council vehicle that operates over the weekend  they only collect garbage on Monday. How do you expect the town to look clean,” the vendors complained. “And most of the bins that LCC has put around the CBD are not meant for heavy solid waste but light things it would be good if they put big industrial bins,” he said.  And another vendor Alexzander Makungu said that LCC was trying their best to collect solid waste but they were not managing effectively. “We are asking if LCC can come up with a time table to collect solid waste two or three times a day,” he said.   Mr Makungu accused the bus drivers  of  throwing trash any how in the CBD because most of them did not have bins in the  buses.  He urged LCC to inspect most of the buses and ensure that they had bins to avoid making the city dirty.  Meanwhile, Independence ward 14 Councilor, George Daka said that LCC had challenges in the collection of garbage in the CBD and they had recommended two private companies to be managing solid waste.  “As LCC we have our own issues most of them they are complaints that garbage can’t be collected because there is no fuel and that is   we brought  in private waste collection companies to start collecting waste,” he said.   Mr Daka said that the Council had awarded the construct to two companies and that the CBD had been demarcated in two areas for easy management. The Sun