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Blessings Chidakwa-Municipal Reporter

Harare City Council is drawing up plans to decommission its Pomona dumpsite, switching to a landfill, while ready to upgrade the Pomona dump management to prevent fires and serious pollution. 

The local authority has to comply with a three month-ultimatum issued by the High Court on March 24 for it to provide the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) with a decommissioning plan.

Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme on Wednesday said the city was taking giant steps in trying to comply with the court order. 

“We have made an application for four pieces of land to the Government for our prospective new site and we are still waiting for their response on which one they will approve. While doing so we are also in constant touch with EMA advising them about what we are doing. 

“EMA national spokesperson Ms Amkela Sidange yesterday (on Tuesday) said the city is expected to give the agency the decommissioning plan by next week.

“The court order had two issues: one that the city should provide us with a decommissioning plan and that it should also comply with any advice or instruction from the agency.

“Therefore, we have since issued them with an internal environmental protection order ordering them to have fire guards at Pomona, to compact the dump regularly and to have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that they can train their stakeholders,” she said.

She said the decommissioning plan by Harare should tackle issues to do with a new standard landfill as the current type was banned in 2012 by the Government.

In recent years, residents in Pomona have been raising concern over continued air pollution emanating from the dumpsite. The site was opened in an old municipal quarry after a former landfill near Mbare was closed.

The idea was to fill the large hole created by the quarry, but the dump has continued in use long after compacted garbage reached the old surface level.

However, management problems have seen outbreaks of fire that can produce serious and potentially toxic pollution.