HCC incompetence affects Pomona Waste to energy project

Staff Reporter

The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) led Harare City Council’s (HCC) incompetence in managing the waste collection system threatens the inception and sustenance of the Pomona Waste to Energy project.

Speaking to this publication, a source within the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) revealed that the unreliable waste collection services by the HCC had led people to resort to localised waste management systems which are not favourable for the Pomona Waste to Energy Project.

“The unreliable practices by HCC have led to localised waste management practices in Harare, to an extent that residents have had to look for alternative ways to deal with waste disposal.

“Residents have resorted to composting bio-degradable waste while burning other forms of solid waste.  This may result in HCC not having enough waste to meet its obligation of depositing 550 tonnes of waste per day to Pomona dumpsite,” said the source.

Another source from HCC who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that for HCC to meet the required 550 tonnes of waste per day, it would have to service all its Wards across Harare.

“For waste collection to be effective, the HCC is supposed to have a refuse collection truck for each of its 46 Wards, but only has 17 trucks available, most of which are unreliable, hence unable to collect 550 tonnes of waste a day.

“The option of sub constructing on waste collection to private players was shot down because it was concluded that it would be too costly,” said the source.

Geogenix BV, a Germany company partnered with local players to form a Waste to Energy Power plant, a project now called the Geo Pomona Waste Management (Pvt) Ltd.  Geogenix entered into an agreement to develop a waste to energy plant at the Pomona dumpsite which will run for 30 years.  Their main objective is to recycle waste to produce 22MW of electricity monthly, whose off taker will be ZETDC.