Uncollected refuse is piling up again in sanitary lanes causing a distinctly unsavoury smell of rotting garbage in some parts of the city centre, barely a week after the Bulawayo City Council’s alley clean-up drive.Council last week embarked on a clean-up campaign of the city centre and also introduced skip bins in populated areas along 5th Avenue, Renkini Bus Terminus and those close to Egodini Bus Terminus.The clean-up focused more on sanitary lanes, which have been an eyesore in the central business district for years.Council also announced that it would be closely monitoring and introducing fines against those that dump waste in sanitary lanes. Sanitary lanes are designed to provide leeway for service vehicles, such as delivery and garbage collection trucks, but residents, particularly vendors, have been using them as dumping sites due to council’s failure to effectively and timeously collect garbage.A Chronicle news crew, which toured sanitary lanes around the CBD that were cleaned last week, observed that dumping had resumed in alleys located on busy streets where illegal vending is rife.A vendor, who declined to be identified, said they had an agreement with the council to dump their garbage in sanitary lanes. “We have an arrangement with the council and were authorised to put our garbage in these (sanitary) lanes for easy collection and to avoid littering all around.Everyone here, even those from the supermarkets and nearby shops, dump (their garbage) here,” she said.
