Tue, 16 Jan 2018 10:18:45 +0000
By LINDA SOKO TEMBO
THE cholera outbreak has momentarily affected the Manja Pamodzi recycling project because scavengers have been banned from picking solid waste.
Zambia Breweries corporate affairs director Ezekiel Sekele said the project would be affected for a short period as the government puts up measures to contain the epidemic is contained.
Mr Sekele said the company totally supported government efforts of ensuring that the outbreak was contained despite the recycling business been affected.
“As Zambia Breweries yes in this period of recycling the recycling project will be affected we know that the down side effect of not running the business is short medium term soon everything will be back to normal,” he said.
In an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Sekele explained that Manja Pamodzi project which was an initiative of Zambia Breweries was beyond Chunga landfill and that it had been introduced in selected parts of the city to ensure that garbage was not left unattended too.
“For us as a business the whole Manja Pamodzi is beyond Chunga dumpsite. It’s in Matero, Ngombe and other selected communities of Lusaka.
“We support government’s decision to ban scavengers from collecting solid waste until cholera is contained in the country.
“We are in support of what government is doing through the task force. As Manja Pamodzi we have been saying let’s clean our environment, the drainage system through recycling,” he said.
Mr Sekele said Zambia had foresaw the looming problem or what was happening now in the country, adding that was why they introduced the recycling project before the cholera outbreak.
He said much as the business will slowdown, there was always something that the project could do in preventing the further spread of the epidemic.
Mr. Sekele explained that though the company was unable to collect solid waste right now, there was something it could do to help to create awareness.
He said the company could for instance assign to trucks to help the task force in the cleaning exercise.
