Victoria Falls City’s goal of becoming a green tourism destination is on track leveraging on efforts being made by Pristine Victoria Falls Society (PVFS), a multi-stakeholder initiative responsible for cleaning the city’s environs.
The resort city’s local authority, in its five-year strategic plan, set a target to become a green destination with minimal littering and disturbance to the natural environment.
Victoria Falls is a World Heritage site whose environs should be kept in their pristine state as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world.
While the city’s local authority is making its own efforts in the promotion of smart city concept, among them plans to reduce traffic in the central business district and reducing environmental degradation, various stakeholders also came up with the PVFS initiative to help clean the surroundings.
Last year, the stakeholders who comprise individuals, companies and organisations formed the PVFS which gave birth to the Victoria Falls waste management task force to work towards transforming the city into the cleanest in Africa.
Victoria Falls became a city in December 2019.
The task force is composed of the PVFS, Environmental Management Authority (EMA), Victoria Falls City Council and the Zimbabwe Republic Police to spearhead the cleaning.
Organisations or individuals adopt a certain part of the city to clean on a daily basis in line with the National Clean-up exercise that was started by President Mnangagwa.
President Mnangagwa set the first Friday of each month as a day to people should clean their surroundings.
However, PVFS cleans on a daily basis without waiting for the first Friday of the month and collects more than 3 000 bags of litter every month.
The initiative’s programme manager Douglas Musiringofa said there is need to raise awareness in the communities for behaviour change so that the efforts are sustainable.
“Pristine Victoria Falls Society is a community led initiative dedicated to making Victoria Falls the cleanest city in Africa. It is supported by the private and public sector as well as resident volunteer community members.
“It leads daily clean up exercise and educates community members on proper waste disposal and management. It also provides resources and advice for the benefit of present and future generations. In the first year of inception (2021-2022) PVFS collected over 8 000 bags of litter. Now, over 3 000 bags of waste are collected each month suggesting significant progress,” he said.
Musiringofa said there is however, more work to be done to change people’s behaviour as litterbugs continue to dump waste at undesignated areas.
He said cleaning without educating people will not yield results hence they carry out robust educational and awareness campaigns to complement the clean-up exercise.
This will in turn help enhance tourism which is the mainstay of Victoria Falls economy.
Schools have also joined in the activities as they help clean around their premises under the eco-warriors programme being run under the PVFS.
Victoria Falls City Town Clerk Ronnie Dube said the city needs an all-stakeholders approach to achieve its greening status goals.
