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Municipal Reporter

THE Pomona dumpsite waste to energy plant model in Harare should be replicated in other cities as it will bring a lot of value to Zimbabwe especially in terms of good health as cities will be cleaner while more power will be added to the national grid, a Cabinet Minister has said. 

Further, Harare City Council has assured residents that refuse collection rates will remain the same contrary to some misleading reports. 

Touring the dumpsite yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa hailed GeoPomona for having started construction works. 

“We want to say to Geogenix we are impressed with what you are doing. You have been here hardly a month, but the work you are doing with the City of Harare is very impressive.

“As a Government we are quite excited that issues of waste management will be things of the past. We want a Harare that is clean. The Second Republic is talking about putting back Harare, our cities, into the sunshine cities they have always been.”

Minister Mutsvangwa was accompanied by her deputy Hon Kindness Paradza, Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister Magna Mudyiwa and Transport and Infrastructure Development Deputy Minister Mike Madiro.

Minister Mutsvangwa said the project will certainly bring a lot of value to Zimbabwe in terms of making sure residents are well looked after and their waste is collected on time.

“We know in the past we lost children who were playing in these heaps of waste trying to pick whatever things they could lay their hands on. That will be a thing of the past. The place will be well secured and everything will be done very professionally,” she said.

Minister Mutsvangwa said diseases like cholera and typhoid are caused by poor sanitary conditions hence the need to deal with the Pomona menace.

“We need to deal with all the waste in Zimbabwe. We have started with Harare, Pomona. They will be planting a lot of trees to make sure this place will never be a place for dumping waste. It will be an entertainment park.

“They will make sure there will be no smell. They will be building a biogas factory and instead of just having cleanliness, we will have more kilowatts added to the national grid,” she said.

Minister Mutsvangwa said Zimbabweans are known for being smart.

“We want to make sure that all the waste is collected and is brought here where it is dealt with. This is very professional. In other cities, Western cities, you hardly see heaps of waste.

“What you see is loads of trucks bringing in waste. It will be weighed and they will pay for whatever they will be bringing in and everything will be recycled,” she said.

Acting Harare Mayor Musarurwa Mutizwa also expressed satisfaction with civil works being undertaken at Pomona.

“This is a project and we are part of it, part of the deal. As part of our equity we are going to be supplying the deal with all garbage from the city. The garbage is going to be paid as an entry fee.

“What is in the agreement is a yearly payment which we are going to pay as equity in terms of entry fees. We are partners in this business and going to share the spoils at the end of the day”.

Mayor Mutizwa said the generation of between  22 to 25 megawatts of electricity will see Harare City Council reaping huge rewards. 

“What we are witnessing here is a massive development. We are very much happy with the progress so far made by Geogenix at this plant.

“Harare is very much seized with the business of cleaning the city where this package or deal will also capacitate the city to have the refuse compactors and other equipment that will help us clean the city,” he said.

Mayor Mutizwa said more than 10 times this year alone, Pomona barracks has asked the council to close the dumpsite since they were a ticking time bomb for outbreak of diseases. 

“We were approaching their offices every morning. We had to go this route so as to manage the waste in Harare. This is a way of how we can come up with the value chain of our waste.

“For the comfort of our residents, this deal is not going to change the rates that we are charging our residents. The rates remain the same,” he said.