The Burning Question: Are We All Equal?

In Harare, Zimbabwe, there are high density suburbs like Mbare, Sunningdale, Glen View, Budiriro, Mabvuku, Highfield and Kuwadzana. Each has its own unique history. For example, Mbare (established 1907 in the then Salisbury) was the first high density suburb (Newsvyb, 2017), unfortunately located near the city sewage works, abattoir (at the time), and cemetery (up to today). At the top end are low density, leafy suburbs such as Chisipite, Borrowdale, and Glen Lorne. In general, where one lives is an indicator of the money that they have.

People differentiate themselves into “classes” depending on where they stay, whether or not they own residential property, and where they own residential property. Some are very strict about places they go to, for leisure, church, health check-ups or work. The main differentiating factor is the money. Places are referred to as “upmarket” or “downtown” depending on location, type of patronage, or quality of services offered. In the same way people mechanically set up hierarchical structures at workplaces (Capra, 2002), the social life of people in Harare is hierarchically compartmentalised on the money.

The complexity of life: Diluting the classes

Hypothetically, if I have enough money to live in Borrowdale, would I be able to say that I would never set foot in the city centre, Mbare, or Southerton Industrial area? Would I be able to say only people who have passed their “O” levels can live in (I would need at least a gardener and housemaid) Borrowdale? If I meet a lovely girl who hails from Kambuzuma at University of Zimbabwe, can I love her?

With my money, would I be able to stop the air from Mbare, the famously unsustainable Pomona dumpsite, or Mabvuku drifting to Borrowdale? Suppose I elevate myself and become the Mayor of Harare. I could give myself and other top officials handsome financial rewards, while taking my foot of the gas on issues like waste management and public health.

Why not?

After all, my family does not “eat” public health at home; they eat food bought by the money that I earn. When I talk about the “public”, in my mind my family and I are excluded; how can we be part of the public? Yet, to exclude myself from the public, I would need, say, specialised respiratory equipment, at work and at home. How can I breathe the same polluted air that the public breathes? By the way, the public includes street kids who burn the waste overflowing in bins scattered all over Harare city centre that my council will be failing to collect and dispose of safely.

If I am the owner of a supermarket chain in the city centre then I know that the waste that is burned comes from my supermarkets. In that case, maybe, it means the smell of burnt waste in the air is a sweet aroma to my nostrils, a sign that I am making more money, despite the exposure of my lungs to poisonous gases. But still, I would ask, why is life so complicated? Why can’t I completely shake off people and environments that do not belong to my class? Why does it appear that, in some respects, I am equal to those who have less money and less power than me?

The Burning Question

In Harare, the culture of burning of waste is the norm; it is institutionalised. Residents and Council who are troubled by waste? They burn. Security guards and street kids feeling cold at night? They burn. Police troubled by waste? They burn. Hospitals, NGOs, schools, urban agriculturists, teachers – they burn.

The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) are nice environmental police but especially now as elections are approaching they appear very reluctant to prosecute those who burn, including local authorities. Instead of putting in place a sustained and effective strategy to deal with the burning question, they appear to be busy participating in clean-up campaigns and posting nice pictures on social media.

Unfortunately burning of waste produces a host of toxic chemicals that persist in the environment, and cause serious long-term health problems that include respiratory illnesses and cancer.

These chemicals travel freely in the air; they do not avoid places where the rich stay, like Glen Lorne, neither can the rich isolate themselves in their homes, and avoid places where waste is burned.

Again, we breathe every day, hour, minute, and second, awake or asleep, rich or poor.

With policy makers unwilling or unable to lead the process of addressing the burning question, it looks like Harare will have to live with unnecessary exposure to respiratory and other illnesses for the foreseeable future.

Can the 2018 elections address the burning question? Or shall we forever remain (unfortunately) equal in terms of exposure to toxic gases from burnt waste?

Source: Macdonald Mamina

Action: Please report environmental crimes, like burning, to the Environmental Management Agency. Their email address is: eep@ema.co.zw

Please let us know if you ever hear back from them.