Pomona dumpsite in significant transformation
BARELY two years ago, the Pomona dumpsite was a cesspool teeming with flies and stray dogs scavenging through mounds of foul-smelling garbage.
On a good day, surrounding residential areas were treated to waves of nauseating odour, and on bad days, they could go for weeks on end blanketed in thick smoke from burning litter.
In 2020, the Environmental Management Agency classified the then Harare City Council-run dumpsite as an environmental emergency that needed urgent attention.
“Now, it is so clean you can have your lunch inside,” remarked Geo Pomona executive chairperson Mr Dilesh Nguwaya while taking The Sunday Mail crew on a tour of the site, which has been comprehensively transformed in the past two years.
A tarred road with street lights and signage has been constructed, while reclamation and landscaping for an area covering 25 000 square metres has been completed.
The large piles of rotten garbage have now been replaced with geomembrane and geotextile layers to minimise environmental contamination from fluids and smelly gases.
A perimeter fence, a tree line and a refreshing green lawn also form part of the new-look landscape.
Upon completion, the Geo Pomona site will consist of a waste-to-energy plant that will produce 22MW of electricity, a sorting plant, landfills, a weighbridge, a wastewater treatment plant and recreational facilities.
“The main aim of the project is the incin- eration of solid waste to generate electric- ity that will be fed into the national grid through the waste-to-energy plant.
“This plant is on course to be con- structed in year three of the project,”added Mr Nguwaya.
“We will incinerate 1 000 tonnes of waste per day to produce between 16MW and 22MW of electricity. This is complementing Government efforts to ensure all Zimba- bweans have electricity.”
Construction of recreational facilities that include a soccer field, as well as ten- nis and basketball courts, he said, is in progress and could be completed early next year.
“We are in the second year of our project and I am happy to share that we are on track with set targets.
“Two weighbridges were installed for waste registration when trucks come through for waste disposal. We have bought machinery for use on site, a dozer, tipper trucks, a high-pressure cleaner and an excavator.”
For internal infrastructure, signage at the main gate has been done, showing directions for the recreational areas completed, while a parking lot close to the offices and the weighbridge has been paved and marked.
“What used to be a black pool has been removed and the place has been filled with soil,” Mr Nguwaya said.
“We have drilled four boreholes in total on-site and an irrigation system was installed.”
Apart from laying the groundwork for a state-of-the-art waste management plant, Geo Pomona Waste Management Pvt Ltd has already created employment, mainly for people in surrounding communities.
“Currently, we have 188 employees to cater for the immediate needs of the project. We intend to employ more than 400 personnel to run the dumpsite and the power station. As the project progresses, the figure will rise,” he added.
“Plans are underway to build a sorting plant to separate recyclable and non-recyclable material.
“For the existing waste, the solution that Geo Pomona Waste Management has offered is encapsulation with geomembrane, geotextile and one metre of soil layers. Drilling to collect biogas from the encapsulation will be done later.
“We will have three landfills on site — one for municipal waste, one for ashes and the last one for hazardous waste.”
Mr Nguwaya said a water treatment plant to process contaminated water that collects on the ground will also be constructed.
As part of their corporate social responsibility programme, Geo Pomona Waste Management Pvt Ltd, in April, financed road rehabilitation of Sawley Way in Marlborough, among other projects.