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Harare City Council is set to commission a US$5 million landfill near Mount Hampden before the end of the year, relieving pressure on the Pomona site which is now being enveloped by housing, as part of efforts to improve waste management within the city.
Mount Hampden, being to the west of Harare, is almost always downwind of the city, and so a better-sited and better-managed landfill will diminish environmental damage. The old Pomona quarries had to be pressed into use very quickly and there have always been problems as result of the lack of proper planning and preparation.
Addressing city residents at a meeting convened by faith-based organisation Miracle Missions in Highlands yesterday, Director of Waste Management Mr Dombo Chibanda said the burning of Pomona dumpsite last month had been an eye opener and council was committed to improving the situation.
“We have identified a place in Mount Hampden and have already done the prospectus and submitted the plan to the Environmental Management Authority which is now in the process of looking at it,” he said.
“Council is hopeful that the new dumpsite will be commissioned before the end of the year.” Pomona dumpsite was recently set on fire by a vagrant, resulting in the waste burning for more than two weeks.
Mr Chibanda said council was partnering a Canadian firm for the setting up of a recycling plant at the new site.
“We have seen that most of the solid waste at our dumpsite can be recycled and used for other means, hence the idea of the plant,” he said.
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