Botswana: Gaborone City Council Chief Environmental Health Officer Patrick Oleseng has called on his staff members to support responsible waste management in the city, The officials have shared that waste management is a major challenge in the capital city.
The administration needs to engage in sensitization exercise for the people of the various communities within the city. They should be showing the people how they can help in ensuring that waste generated in the city can be managed effectively.
Effective waste management can often be the first step towards ensuring that the members of the community
The officials as the people need to be sensitized on the responsible disposal to work collectively in waste management in the city. Environmental Department was meeting to discuss their Annual Performance Plan. Further, the officials have shared that they also had the opportunity to discuss in great detail several other crucial issues within the department.
Waste management and the city beautification have been two major mandates for the city council. The Gaborone administration has been running cleanup campaigns for several months in various communities of the city. They are also urging community members to continue their support to the leadership in keeping the city clean and beautiful.
Oleseng stressed that Gaborone has unique challenges that demand collective efforts from all those involved in waste management value chain. He said that optimal use of the limited resources that Council have can enable employees to fulfil their daily responsibilities.
He emphasized that sharing of resources should be a priority within the department as waste management requires a lot of logistics which is currently the main issue within the organization.
Principal Environmental Health Officer Ibeni Mahuma encouraged officers to work on their emotional intelligence to make sure that they remain in check and able to handle the enormous pressures brought by work overload.
Mahuma noted that as environmental officers they should come up with initiatives in which they can try to curb littering and illegal dumping within the city.
She said to reduce issues of illegal dumping, Council should come up with initiatives such as to turn open spaces into greeneries and entertainment areas.