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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

CONSERVATIONISTS in Victoria Falls have erected an electric fence around a dumpsite in the city to prevent environmental pollution and reduce human wildlife conflict by keeping away scavengers.

The death of elephants and other species that ate too much plastic from the dump over the years inspired the idea.

A dead elephant

The dumpsite has been a cause for concern over the years as baboons, hyenas and elephants scavenge for food from the site near Masue River.

This has caused challenges of land and air pollution while several animals including cattle from nearby communities have died from eating plastic over the years.

In 2016, various local environment charity organisations led a campaign to raise $50 000 which was used to build a solar-powered electric fence around the dumpsite but elephants destroyed it within a few months. 

Over the years the dumpsite has not been fenced while the Victoria Falls City Council is also courting investors to finish construction of an 8-cell landfill using the Fukuyoka landfill design borrowed from Japan.

Victoria Falls City Council

Speaking at a lions and elephants ecological research update meeting recently, Connected Conservation project co-ordinator Mr Malvern Karidozo said a consortium of conservationist organisations had combined efforts to protect the dump site from animal species that forage there.

“We recently re-fenced the dump site using electric fence in collaboration with Early Crew and Pristine Victoria Falls Society. So far there has been no damage this time,” said Mr Karidozo.

He said the electric fence is one of the innovative fencing methods being employed by environmentalists to protect some areas and reduce human-wildlife conflict using locally available materials.  Some of the methods that have been used, especially to keep elephants away from protected areas or human settlements, include disruptive darting, chilly bricks and bee fences which have helped keep away the jumbos by causing discomfort by introducing chilly substances in the environment.

The disruptive darting method was used on two collared male jumbos that had been frequenting Baobab Primary School in  the city and the Victoria Falls Airport respectively, putting people’s lives in danger and they avoided the areas because of the discomfort.

Environmentalists have said elephants feel uncomfortable when they sniff chilly and avoid the place. Pristine Victoria Falls Society is an organisation that was established by conservationists and hotel and tour operators last year with the aim of keeping the resort city free of litter, and make it the cleanest city in Africa, in line with modern trends of greening tourism. 

Each organisation adopts a certain part of the city which it cleans and maintains and this has also fed into the National Clean-Up Campaign which has kept Victoria Falls in pristine form as a tourist destination. – @ncubeleon.