Residents have slammed Harare City Council for flip flopping on the Pomona waste to energy deal saying it carried out all due diligence processes before signing and should just honour its obligations with Geogenix BV.
Addressing the media after touring the dumpsite yesterday,
Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations and Residents Trust chairman Mr
Shalvar Chikomba said there is no need to project the deal in bad light given
the appetite that is enhanced by respect for contractual agreements.
“The selfish and corrupt tendencies being exhibited in the
implementation of the Pomona waste management contract smacks of safeguarding
their personal interests (councillors) ahead of national development which is
totally unacceptable.
“City of Harare should be investing time and efforts in
this project as signs of having the Smart City by 2025 are clearly seen on this
project because other than that they didn’t have a plan on handling Pomona
dumpsite,” he said.
Mr Chikomba said they look forward to the participatory
waste management model to be replicated in all provinces in Zimbabwe blessed by
councils.
“As affected residents who have been made aware of the
Pomona dump site solution through council committee stages up to resolutions,
their visits for due diligence to Italy and Albania for project feasibility
before they could put pen to paper on contractual agreement,” he said.
“We understand this dumpsite has been a health ticking time
bomb since 1985 when it was created.
“It has been an environmental hazard to the nation for the
past 37 years, getting toxic in the recent past in total violation of the
Constitutional Rights to a safe, clean environment not harmful to the health of
all Zimbabweans.”
Mr Chikomba said Section 73 on environmental rights says
every person has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their
health or well-being.
He said the supreme law of the land also guarantees every
person to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future
generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent
pollution and ecological degradation.
Mr Chikomba said there have been furious fires lasting two
weeks in 2007, 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2020 with devastating environmental effects
on the land, the atmosphere and ozone layer.
“Regrettably Harare residents and other cities here in
Zimbabwe have witnessed poor waste management in the form of toxic smoke clouds
covering the city skies whilst the guilty city fathers choose to remain quiet,”
he said.
“This has remained an environmental challenge in most urban
local authorities, especially the continued use of unlined dump sites despite
provisions of Statutory Instrument 6 of 2007 which mandated all local
authorities to have constructed and use standard sanitary landfills for waste disposal
by 31 December 2012.”
Mr Chikomba said EMA has served orders to defaulting local
authorities including Harare with ratepayers money, amounting to millions of US
dollars, being used to pay off penalties for non-compliance with the orders
since 2013.
He said Harare City Council has been brought for hearings
before the Environmental Management Board on various environmental issues
including poor waste management in general and Pomona dump site in particular.
“We have also witnessed a lot of dumpsites which have
accumulated in our communities and households because of non-collection of
refuse by city fathers yet they collect revenue for refuse collections from us
residents,” he said.
Geoginix official Engineer Wadzanai Chigwa said they are
helping the city in managing their waste, coming up with a clean environment.
“The project is progressing. We are preparing the land and
the site for installation of the various plants including waste water
treatment, sorting, waste to energy and the landfill cells for the hazardous
waste,” she said.
“We would like to thank the residents for coming here and
having an appreciation.
“Harare will become a world class city by 2025 and we are
promoting a circular economy within Zimbabwe so that we achieve SDG targets of
having clean cities and being able to support the vision of NDS1.” Herald
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