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Christopher  Charamba Review  Correspondent —
“I actually want to know if the City council is prepared to give us free X-ray tests or something of the sort so that we can see if we are fine. We have not been told to evacuate and so we shall remain here but we need some sort of protection.”

The past six days have been hell-on-earth for Harare residents staying Pomona, Mt Pleasant, Malborough, Avondale, Avonlea and Dzivaresekwa.

Their “hell” had nothing to do with fire and brimstone as elucidated in the Bible.

Theirs subjected them to a death-by-chocking torture as the Harare City Council Pomona dumpsite puked a thick plume of smoke engulfing the environments on the windward side of the dump.

The landfill, under immense pressure from the tonnes of garbage dumped on a daily basis, caught fire as the gases from decaying matter relented to the heat generated below the surface. Sunday, November 6 became the doomsday when plumes of thick smoke broke from the landfill covering all areas in the south-western areas of the dumpsite. The fumes from the landfill have been a health hazard to thousands of residents downwind.

Mr Njonda, a truck driver who lives in Hatcliffe but works in Pomona bemoaned council’s failure to contain the fire.

“Our outpost is very close to the dump and we drive to Hatcliffe from here. The smoke is a problem, it is thick and making it difficult for us to breathe. We are actually scared that we might end up getting TB or other respiratory problems. Throughout the day we are just inhaling this smoke,” he said.

In the past couple of days, the fire had subsided but Njonda was pessimistic about the City’s ability to put it out any time soon.

“This fire will need an intervention from the heavens. The city will not be able to put it out without rain. Until then, those of us who work and live here will continue to inhale this smoke but it is not good,” he said.

Pomona resident and colleague to Mr Njonda, Tongai Nhete said he was concerned about his health. He has been exposed to the fumes day and night.

“My truck does not have windows but even if it did, the smoke would still enter. When we drive to Hafcliffe, we drive through the smoke for a good 200 to 250m, maybe even more.

“Aside from inhaling the smoke the whole time we are affected by the fact that we cannot see what is on the road. The smoke is thick and dark and makes it difficult for us to drive. This is how we make our living and I am not prepared to drive round to get to Hatcliffe because that we will use more diesel,” he said.

Nhete and other truck drivers were concerned that if the fire is not put out soon there would be long lasting health consequences.

“I actually want to know if the City council is prepared to give us free X-ray tests or something of the sort so that we can see if we are fine. We have not been told to evacuate and so we shall remain here but we need some sort of protection.

“The city should have organised testing for people in the area to find out how these toxins that we are inhaling will affect us and then tell us what we should do to prevent being affected.”

Monica Kamundi, who lives close to Pendennis shopping centre in Mount Pleasant, said she was at first confused as to what was going on but could sense that it was no ordinary fire.

“The fire started when I was at home but with the way that it was smelling you could tell that it was not an ordinary veld or bush fire. I later found out that the smoke was coming from the Pomona landfill and this surprised me because it is a bit of a distance from here,” she said.

Kamundi was worried that this might cause health problems for asthmatic people.

“The smoke reached all the way to Mount Pleasant. It was thick, dark and choking. In our home we tried to close the windows but it was still seeping through the air vents and the doors.

“My problem is that I am asthmatic and so this smoke is actually affecting my health right now. I went to the clinic and was prescribed Salbutamol which I am taking but I am still worried that if this is not dealt with now it will affect me more.

“I am also worried for my child because I don’t know what this could end up doing to his health in the long run. I am praying that there will be a solution soon because we cannot continue like this,” she said.

Forget Chivasa, who works on a greenhouse along Harare Drive between Pomona and Mount Pleasant, said the smoke was affecting his work and he was concerned about his health.

“I spend most of the day in the greenhouse and when the smoke blows our way it fills the greenhouse making it difficult to breathe. We have tried to close up the greenhouse to prevent the smoke from coming in but this hasn’t helped much.

“My colleagues and I actually had to get gas mask respirators to help us breathe in the smoke but I don’t think this is a long lasting solution,” he said.

Chivasa was not only worried for his health but also for the crops that they were growing.

“Here we grow seedlings for pepper and with the amount of smoke that has been coming into the greenhouse I think that it might seep into the soil and affect our plants. We can’t be certain of this because we do not know what toxins are being carried around, but it is very worrying for us,” he said.

City of Harare director of Health Services Dr Prosper Chonzi said the smoke was more likely to affect those who had pre-existing conditions but also have long term effects on those who do not.

“The smoke from the dumpsite is being produced by a fire which is burning material from domestic waste. Inhaling this smoke could cause problems for those who already have pre-existing respiratory conditions such as asthma or bronchitis.

“For those suffering from such conditions, especially asthma, constant inhaling of the smoke could trigger an acute asthma attack. Those suffering from chest problems such as TB are also at risk as the smoke could make their conditions worse,” he said.

Due to the fact that the waste at the Pomona landfill is domestic and not chemical, Dr Chonzi said, the fire was unlikely to cause any long term effects to individuals.

“Those who know that they have problems such as asthma, bronchitis and other chest problems should probably move away from the area until such a time that the problem is contained and there is no longer smoke in the air.”

Environmental Management Agency spokesperson Mr Steady Kangata said poor waste management practices resulted in the fire outbreaks at the Pomona landfill. This is the second fire outbreak at Pomona after another one in 2013.

“Waste management is a very critical environmental issue for any nation. It involves the generation, collection, transportation and disposal of the waste.

“As such, the disposal of waste must be done at a properly lined and well-engineered landfill site,” he said.

“Unfortunately for Harare, the relevant authorities have neglected the landfill since 2007 failing to renovate and relocate their landfills for proper waste management.

“In terms of Statutory Instrument No. 6 on Effluent and Solid Waste Disposal Regulations of 2007, all local authorities were given a five-year period to migrate from open dumpsites to properly lined and engineered landfill sites from 2007.

“This is to avoid dangers associated with open dumping such as being breeding places for disease vectors such as flies, cockroaches and rodents, odour and fire outbreaks which can either be human ignited or spontaneous. Such fires are deep-seated and are fuelled by gases that build up from the decomposition of material.”

Mr Kangata said before the fire outbreak at Pomona, orders had been issued to the City to decommission the landfill for a properly lined landfill.

“The City was also brought before the Environment Management Board on September 12, 2016 on various environmental issues including poor waste management in general and Pomona Dumpsite in particular. City of Harare was ordered to improve the management mechanisms of Pomona Dumpsite by compacting the site every fortnight, manage the breeding of disease vectors at the site, erect or install a barrier around the perimeter fence into the decommissioning and after care stages of the site.

“They were also asked to provide for budgetary allocation in the 2017 budget for the commissioning of a new landfill,” he said.

In response to EMA’s City of Harare acting corporate communications manager Mr Michael Chideme said council was in the process of identifying land for a new landfill.

“There are plans to commission a new landfill and we are currently in the process of identifying a land for this to happen.

“The initial place we had found was shot down because it was said to be too close to Charles Prince airport and so a new place has to be found. We have already spoken to our parent ministry, the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and they are aiding us with this process of finding land.

“Once this is complete we can get to the business of commissioning the new landfill,” he said.

On the fire outbreak, Mr Chideme said that the City was pleased with the efforts taking place to put out the fire.

“We are very grateful to all the stakeholders that have been involved in the process of putting out this fire in Pomona.

“These include, the fire brigade, police, the army, corporations, and individuals.

“This fire is everyone’s baby because it has affected residents in the area as well as business, so there are many stakeholders and we appreciate the support they have given us to put out the fire.

“The efforts that have been made to put out the fire have been commendable thus far and while I cannot give a specific date as to when the fire will be out completely, we are hoping that by the end of the weekend we would have achieved this,” he said.

Mr Chideme added that such a fire was a difficult one to put out because of the gases that fuel it from underground.

“By the time that one notices the fire burning on top of the landfill, it would have likely been burning underground for a few days fuelled by the gases trapped under the landfill. It therefore, needs a lot of effort to put out and the City is working tirelessly to ensure that this is done.”

Landfill fires are common in badly managed dumpsites.

Patrick Foss-Smith, writing for the Waste Management World, notes landfill fires vary in scale from minor outbreaks on the surface, to massive tyre conflagrations with the potential to cause environmental incidents. In human terms, he says, the uncontrolled atmospheric emissions arising from these fires, which often continue, sometimes, for years, are potentially lethal with well-proven acute and chronic health impacts.

Foss-Smiths says surface fires start from a heat source of some type has contacted the surface, for instance deposits of hot wastes, lightning, or arson.

For deep-seated fires (below 4,5 metres) the initiation mechanisms are quite different. Accidentally initiated fires, such as the spontaneous combustion at Pomona, involves a buried heat source, resulting from biological decomposition or chemical oxidation. This produces a rise in temperature if the waste mass cannot dissipate the heat faster than it is being produced — a process known as “thermal runaway”.

The life cycle of a landfill includes two periods of significant temperature rise which unfortunately coincide with elevated oxygen levels and, during the first period, maximum settlement when the landfill mass is prone to collapse and further ingress of oxygen.

Spontaneous landfill combustion has been traced to a batch of mercury cell batteries which short-circuited during the final settlement of a landfill. Combustion accelerants can also help to make the party go with a zing, the dregs of distilled alcoholic drinks bottles are an example.

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