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Zimbabwe: Pollution, Sewage Photos On Show At National Gallery
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
22 May 2008
Posted to the web 22 May 2008
Wonder Guchu
Harare
SOME years ago, a group called Boney M forecast the death of the world in a song titled "We Kill the World (Don't Kill the World)" off the album Boonoonoonoos.
"We kill the world. We surely do, in pieces we do. We kill the world, kill the world. 'Cause we don't know what we are doing. I see mushrooms, atomic mushrooms, I see rockets, missiles in the sky, poor world, poor world, concrete's rising up.
"Where yesterday was park, you heard the robin's song, heavy tractor runs, where air was clean and cool, make money burning fuel where will this lead to, what is this good for? Poor world is hurting bad. Poor world is doomed to die," the song says.
And the EU Art of Life photographic exhibition ongoing at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe till June 4 shows how this slow death is killing the world -- bush fires, uncontrolled industrial emissions, gold and diamond panning, rubbish dumps, raw sewage, deforestation and general soil erosion.
Aptly titled the Art for Life, the exhibition features 40 pieces selected from a competition run by Alliance Francaise in conjunction with the EU Commission.
Photographers involved are Lee Maidza, Believe Nyakudjara and Edmore Muzerengi (The Sunday Mail), Ezekiel Mutasa, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, Jekesai Jikizana, RG Varga, David Dell, Patrick Mukandi, Nick Nyambiya, WD Nyamuchengwa, Rob Cooper, Endie Makope and Anthony Thomas.
The sewage collection made up of photos taken by Mutasa brings home the realisation that slowly and unknowingly, our actions are indeed killing the world.
The four photos -- Sewage in Potholes, Crossing Rivers of Sewage, Keeping Sewage Down and Nhunzi on Sewage -- made some somber viewing.
Sewage in Potholes shows how deadly a combination of sewage and potholes is. Besides making the road impassable, the potholes capture and store a source of possible disease -- sewage.
Crossing Sewage Rivers juxtaposes a beautiful sunlit street with the ugliness of raw sewage flowing down while Keeping the Sewage Down shows how desperate people who live in towns become when hit by sewage.
The photograph depicts stuffed bags of sand and concrete bricks piled on top of a manhole in a bid to "calm" it.
Nhunzi on Sewage shows what years of neglect and uninterrupted sewage flow do to the stormwater drains.
Here everything imaginable is captured -- cloth, paper, bottles and dead animals.
Another world "murderer" is air pollution, which is captured in photos taken by Nyakudjara, Muzerengi and Jikizana.
Nyakudjara's Pollution (he should have chosen another title) -- a burning veld that leaves the countryside enveloped in thick smoke and a vehicle driving through the smoke -- shows that veld fires are not confined to rural set-ups.
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There is Muzerengi's Garbage Pollution where a dumpsite is on fire. Thick smog is slowly climbing into the sky while a man -- possibly a scavenger -- is wandering around, searching for whatever he can salvage.
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