By Regis Chingawo
GEO-POMONA says it aims to install two power plants and make Harare a sustainable city once its multi-million dollar green energy plant at the outskirts of the capital city is completed.
Speaking on independent national television channel 3Ktv’s popular current affairs programme, Vantage, last night, Geo-Pomona’s operations and compliance manager, Engineer Wadzanai Chigwa, also said once completed, many doubting people would appreciate the investment.
“Globally, when we are looking at the sustainable development goals which have to do with the issues to do with climate change, part of the goals is to have clean cities which are formed in a sustainable way.
“So, with regards to that, waste is also part of the targets that have been said to make sure that we have a circular economy where nothing is wasted and nothing goes to waste.
“So, our project is coming through as a waste management solution which is there to ensure that we have circularity….We are not going to have anything going to waste — and we are making sure that we are following the hierarchy of waste management and the sustainability in whatever we are doing,” Chigwa told 3Ktv.
“Where we are now is the first stage and I am sure for anyone who has visited Pomona, they have noticed the difference from the Pomona that was there, same time last year.
“So, now is the first process where we are doing encapsulation process, covering the waste that is already there. We are covering and we are greening it. We are also in the process of constructing the roads because construction in itself, requires accessibility,” Chigwa also said.
She said the second process would involve the construction of three land fills and that would have graded and separated waste brought to the site.
“We are going to have the municipal waste land fill where we are looking at the general waste which is going to come from the city of Harare. Then, we have got the ashes land fill…these are the ashes which would have been generated from the burning of the waste.
“Then, we have the hazardous waste landfill. Already there is a separation of the waste. So, the hazardous waste is treated differently from the municipal waste because it has certain chemicals which are harmful to both the environment and to humans.
“Then from there, the municipal waste is going into a sorting plant that is going to be separating the recyclable from the non recyclable and like I have said, we have got a stage for recycling in the waste management,” Chigwa further explained to 3Ktv — adding that the sorting plant and the landfill would be complete in 2025.
She said the waste management plant would bring many benefits to Harare residents, including power generation.
“So, with regards to timeline, the first 11 megawatts plant is supposed to completed within the next three years in 2025. The second plant is supposed to be completed within the next five years in 2027,” she added.
Chigwa said through legislative processes, the Pomona project would result in electricity being fed into the national grid with the hope of resolving the perennial power outages facing Harare and the rest of the country.
“From a legislative point of view, the national grid belongs to our national utility (Zesa), so we are not going to produce power and then say we are going to do whatever we want with it.
“From a legislative point of view, we have to feed into the grid, but as it is, that is going to be one of the benefits for the people of Zimbabwe because we are going to feed all the 22 megawatts into the national grid and at a much lower cost.
“So we are looking at 22 megawatts at a low tariff feeding into the grid and this is going to be a benefit for the people of Zimbabwe,” Chigwa further told 3Ktv.
This comes as Geogenix BV, a Netherlands and Italian investor, sealed a €304 million waste management deal with Harare City in March to convert the dumpsite from a waste to energy project.
The project was at one time threatened by bickering between the opposition-dominated council and authorities who have since given it a national project status — paving way for its ongoing development.
Read the full interview in the Daily News On Sunday.
• In addition to being available free-to-air, 3Ktv is also carried on DStv Channel 293, with Vantage airing every Thursday between 8:30pm and 9pm.
