Kariba Municipality adopts Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan (KISWMP)

Municipality of Kariba has become one of the local authorities to adopt Integrated Solid Waste Management plan. Integrated solid waste management refers to the strategic approach to sustainable management of solid wastes covering all sources and all aspects, covering generation, segregation, transfer, sorting, treatment, recovery and disposal in an integrated manner, with an emphasis on maximizing resource use efficiency. The official handover of the Kariba Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan document to stakeholders was done on this year in March with Terms of Reference drafted and submitted by a Consultant through the Municipality development partner GIZ where a steering committee meeting adopting it on behalf of the stakeholders.

At a service level benchmark peer review meeting held sometime in Kariba, the Mayor of Kariba, Her Worship Councillor Tracy Ndoro expressed gratitude to the Service Level Benchmark (SLB) peer review team that also looked at the KISWMP, "I feel humbled and honoured to welcome you to the Municipality of Kariba, service level benchmark per review. I was informed that the peer review team will focus mainly on water and sanitation services and these components are the key drivers in terms of service delivery". With Kariba adopting the ISWM and serious deliberations that took place during that Kariba Service level benchmarking peer review meeting the Mayor even went further to state that; "I hope, in the near future the SLB peer review team will also consider other services such as roads, streetlights and health services". The Ultimate tourist destination takes the benefits of ISWM Plan largely as of having cleaner and safe neighbourhoods, higher resource use efficiency, resource augmentation, savings in waste management costs due to reduced levels of final waste for disposal, better business opportunities and economic growth and local ownership & responsibilities / participation by the community.

The Kariba Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan per se is a package consisting of a Management System including regulatory, fiscal policies, technologies (basic equipment and operational aspects) voluntary measures (awareness raising, self regulations). This adopted KISWM plan has a management system that covers all aspects of waste management; from waste generation through collection, transfer, transportation, sorting, treatment and disposal. The Plan also covers data and information on waste characterization and quantification (including future trends), and assessment of current solid waste management system for operational stages, provide the basis for developing a concrete and locality-specific management system.

Top level political commitment as well as interest and commitment of local authorities are crucial to the success of this plan/project. A lot of time and resources has been put by the Municipality during gathering of baseline data which is usually not available in such plans. Kariba is applauded for having been one local authority that has always taken consultations with stakeholders seriously in its running. The belief that Stakeholder consultations provides vital information and greatly improve local ownership has been the key to the success of implementation of such plans. KISWM approach being new requires continuous capacity building in partner institutions and the Municipality of Kariba is encouraged to just do that. Kariba with a population of 29 076 according to the 2012 Census has recorded a modest growth rate of 2.5% though this could be higher with the Hydro power station expansion that brought about rural to urban migration due to job opportunities, it therefore meant the increase of waste within the town.

Mostly waste characterisation survey showed that most of the waste in Kariba consists of beer and soft drink cans, plastic bags and scrap metal sheeting, offal from the Lake Harvest fish factory, vegetation matter from gardens and debris from building construction. The current situation sees solid waste being collected thrice from public places per week and once from residential areas. Whilst there are challenges, Kariba still boasts of managing to service its community from the two compactor trucks and a tractor. The existing Kariba solid waste disposal site is located directly opposite Baobab Ridge residential area within a game corridor and is manned by an Attendant and there is a Landfill compactor. The culture of clean up campaigns have also contributed significantly with stakeholders, business people, companies and even the Municipality adopting certain areas week in week out towards the KISWMP.

Kariba Municipality looks at the benefits of proper waste management not just from environmental perspective but economic and social benefits. Now the community at large is required to support the implementation of this KISWMP.