Scenes of raging fires at the infamous Pomona dumpsite in the capital, Harare, has for years aroused considerable outcry from local residents who decried the facility as a polluter, eyesore and generator of foul odours.

For decades, Harare stared down a waste management crisis that had no easy answers.

The open burning of mountains of garbage has irked residents who complain bitterly about this perennial crisis, which has affected them for years without a solution in sight.

However, recent moves by Cabinet to approve the joint venture agreement for the design, build, operate and transfer for the Pomona waste management facility and waste-to-energy plant project between the City of Harare and Geogenix BV, provides great hope not only for Harare, but all major towns and cities in the country which are battling swelling amounts of trash.

“The partnership is between the City of Harare and Geogenix BV for the Harare Pomona waste management and waste-to-energy plant project. Geogenix BV will invest €303,9 million to design, build, operate and transfer a waste management facility and waste-to-energy 16-22 MW plant at Pomona in Harare,” said Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa at a post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday.

“The project will be managed and operated by the investor for a period of 30 years before transfer of the project to the City of Harare. In addition to waste management, the project will also generate 16-22 MW of electricity which will be introduced into the national grid.”

Waste-to-energy plants are expanding in Africa and other parts of the world and Zimbabwe should join the ranks of other countries which are harnessing trash to generate power.

In waste-to-energy plants, power is generated by burning the trash at high temperatures and using it to boil water that is turned into steam, superheated, and sent to a turbine to make electricity.

Most of the plants are concentrated in Europe and Asia with a few under construction in Africa.

These plants use strategies such as compacting garbage and sealing it to capture methane that can be used as fuel.

The approval by Cabinet of a waste-to-energy plant, provides a starting point for discussions about the role of energy from waste in the management of waste in the country.

“The Government is encouraging local authorities to open up similar projects in other cities and towns as a way to ensure environmentally-friendly management of waste in the country,” Minister Mutsvangwa said.

The generation of garbage has increased across the country — in both rural and urban areas and municipalities are battling to cope with the accumulation of trash.

Zimbabwe produces about 1,7 million tonnes of solid waste every year, according to the Environmental Management Agency (EMA).

Sustainable waste management systems are still weak as recycling and waste collection is low.

In the mid-90s, local authorities collected 80 percent of waste and by 2006, the figures had declined to around 30 percent.

Most local authorities lack resources to collect waste forcing residents to throw trash in open dumps as well as conduct backyard incineration.

The collection of waste has largely been left to the informal recycling sector. The intervention of this sector on its own has not helped much to manage the waste crisis facing the country.

A 2016 study titled: “Potential for Waste Energy in Zimbabwe,” indicated that Harare’s Pomona dumpsite receives 1 000 tonnes of waste a day and 57 percent of this waste is combustible with a calorific value of 7-8 Mj/Kg.

The researchers said this was enough to generate 28MW of electricity using the tried and tested Rankin cycle generator.

“If left in dumpsites 3 000 tonnes of waste will generate 1,763 KT of carbon dioxide annually. By developing a waste-to-energy plant there is a potential to save 41 percent of carbon dioxide emissions annually,” the researchers noted.

The study also noted that there was potential for more savings if this strategy was adopted and harnessed countrywide.

The development of the Pomona waste-to-energy plant will have profound spin-offs for the country.

It will make rubbish become a valuable commodity and there will be a reduction of the vermin and the plague-like diseases that they carry.

In addition, environmentalists say the overall sanitation situation will improve, leading to the reduction of the prevalence of water-borne diseases such as cholera.

Refuse collection and recycling will provide employment in various communities and the expensive and undesirable waste landfill sites will become a thing of the past.

Environmentalists also say that there will be a reduction of the air and ground pollution from landfills.

“Land currently used for landfills can be mined and the land sterilised and used for new development. There will be reduction in carbon emissions leading to improved quality of the air,” a Harare -based environmentalist said.

However, environmental critics say as more waste-to-energy facilities get the green light, they fear the emissions that come with the burning of trash could lead to global warming.

Some suggest the waste-to-energy plants are better compared to the destruction of garbage that would otherwise go to landfill.

On the face of it, for now, burning waste looks like a solution to Zimbabwe’s growing waste management crisis.

Local authorities are battling huge mountains of garbage and without such waste-to-energy plants, the continued collection of waste could lead to dangerous stockpiling, opening burning of dumpsites and threats to public safety.

Waste-to-energy plants are also a better way to address the nation’s energy woes.

Zimbabwe has been grappling for years for ways to make electricity reliable, sustainable and affordable.

The plants once commissioned could generate 16 to 22MW of power which could be fed into the national grid.

Even though some fear there is a threat to other waste recycling systems, it is the generation of energy that is more compelling for the government than anything else.

And as the Government explores opportunities in waste-to-energy facilities, it must also seek to promote a broader suite of other initiatives to help tackle the waste management crisis and provide a value for waste that would otherwise go to landfills.

Garbage from homes, schools and businesses around the globe amounted to some two billion metric tonnes in 2016, according to a World Bank report released in 2018.

Global waste is set to swell to 3,4 billion tonnes by 2050 from around two billion tonnes in 2016, with the greatest increase projected to be generated in Asia and Africa.

Failure to collect and properly treat solid waste contributes to flooding, air pollution and public health issues such as respiratory ailments, diarrhoea and dengue fever.

Improving solid waste management, especially in low-income countries, is “an urgent priority,” according to the World Bank.

Over 90 percent of waste in lower-income countries is dumped openly and untreated, as these nations often lack adequate disposal and treatment facilities.

At present Africa is recycling only four percent of its waste, a far cry from the African Union vision that “African cities will be recycling at least 50 percent of the waste they generate by 2023.”

More than 90 percent of waste generated in Africa is disposed of at uncontrolled dumpsites and landfills, often with associated open burning, according to the Africa Waste Management Outlook 2018 report.

About 19 of the world’s 50 biggest dumpsites are located in Africa.

And, without practical steps to address the problem of garbage, the impact on health, productivity, environment, livelihoods and biodiversity could be massive and damaging.

Read the original article on The Herald.