Moshi offers Bagamoyo officials cleanliness hints

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Moshi Urban Council has said that strict enforcement of regulations and the decentralisation of responsibilities to the people who supervise its cleanliness campaign in their respective areas is behind the programme’s success.

Moshi Municipal Health Officer David Kimaro made the statement over the weekend when presenting a paper in a one-day workshop organised by the Bagamoyo Non Governmental Organisations Network (BANGONET).

The workshop was aimed at giving an opportunity to Bagamoyo Urban residents to hear the secret behind the success of Moshi Municipality in maintaining environmental cleanliness.

Kimaro said because of the efforts and strategies set between 2001 to 2011 have enabled the municipality to win first position among 17 Municipalities in the country for the last seven years.

Kimaro said that to ensure the campaign succeeded, the municipality provided enough cleaning equipment including placement of garbage bins in all corners of the municipality, wheel loaders, compactor trucks, skip masters and establishment of a modern dumping area.

He explained that the public was made aware of the cleanliness campaign and given the responsibility of ensuring it was properly implemented. They were made the supervisors and catalysts of the clean-up revolution in their localities.

He revealed that the Municipal authority spends over 250m/- per year on environmental cleanliness of which 180m/- is from people’s contributions.

He added that three agents employed by the municipality enforce cleanliness, arrest offenders and collect penalties set at 50,000/- per person, per offence.
According to him, it was the plan of his Municipality to grow 1.5m trees each year, an exercise carried out from April 1 to 10, every year.

During this period every individual is expected to plant 10 trees while schools, institutions, health centres and hospitals are also encouraged to do the same in their areas.

He declared that despite the efforts the Moshi Municipality is still faced with challenges such a small garbage dumping area which can only last upto 2020.
The Municipal authority plans to seek technical assistance to produce energy from the use of garbage in the dumping area.

Bagamoyo Urban Health Surveyor Assistant Officer Abdul Mohamed said the state of cleanliness of Bagamoyo town was unsatisfactory due to poor infrastructure and lack of facilities.

He said population was growing, leading to increased activity which produced 17 tonnes of garbage per day.

Contributing to the workshop, Bagamoyo resident Mwana Asha Abdallah blamed officials for not being accountable, but also for failing to involve people in plans related to improve cleanliness in the town.

She said there has not consistent follow-up of cleanliness programmes, leading the people to give up participation in campaigns in their localities.