Online Reporter
Harmony Agere
WHEN a Swedish delegation arrived at Geo Pomona’s waste-to-energy facility in Harare on Thursday, their reaction was immediate – disbelief.
Where they expected a smouldering mountain of refuse, like so many dumpsites that scar the African landscape, they found a modern landfill engineered to rival European standards.
“This is the first time in Africa I see such premises,” remarked Mr PerOlof Hallberg, international relations manager for Gastrikke Municipality.
For Mr Hallberg and his team, the sight of Zimbabwean engineers leading such a project was just as striking as the technology itself.
“Normally, you see dump yards around Africa and it is very difficult to attract investors. It is often European companies coming in and taking over,” he said.
“In this case, Zimbabwean engineers are leading, and that highlights this project even more.”
Their visit is just one in a growing list of international missions drawn to Geo Pomona Waste Management, a once-derided dumpsite now reinvented as a flagship waste-to-energy project, with ambitions to power Zimbabwe’s future and inspire the region.
Earlier, Tanzanian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Suzan Kaganda, led her own delegation through the facility.
What she saw left her convinced that Harare had cracked a code many African cities are still struggling with.
“Waste can be seen as something destructive to the environment, but it is also very useful if it is well managed,” she said.
“What we have seen here is very good work that has been done. Preservation of the environment through new technology, but at the same time making use of the people who have been here to offer them employment.”
Her message was clear: Tanzania wanted more than a courtesy tour.
She called for “a lifetime cooperation” between Harare and Dar es Salaam, hinting at future partnerships and exchanges of expertise.
The visit followed deliberations at COP15, where Tanzanian officials actively explored waste management models to both clean cities and create jobs.
Geo Pomona, she suggested, offered exactly that balance.
The international spotlight is widening.
Delegations from Eswatini, Botswana and Madagascar have also walked the carefully lined roads of the Geo Pomona facility, guided by Zimbabwean engineers who proudly point to leachate treatment plants, waste encapsulation systems and plans for a 22-megawatt energy plant.
Eswatini’s Prime Minister Russell Dlamini and King Mswati III have expressed interest in replicating the model back home, while EU officials in Harare have described the project as “a symbol of circular economy thinking in practice”.
What was once a mountain of refuse on the outskirts of Harare has become, in less than three years, a regional classroom.
At the heart of this transformation is the executive chairman and chief executive officer of Geo Pomona Waste Management, Dr Dilesh Nguwaya.
For him, every international visit tells a story of Zimbabwe reclaiming its place as an innovator, not just a follower.
“This visit demonstrates that Zimbabwe is no longer a follower in waste management but a leader, setting the pace for the region,” Dr Nguwaya said after hosting Amb Kaganda.
“What we are doing at Geo Pomona proves that Africa can produce home-grown solutions of global standard without waiting for outsiders to come and do it for us.”
Indeed, Geo Pomona’s trajectory suggests Zimbabwe is exporting something more than waste solutions: it is exporting confidence in African ingenuity.
For now, Pomona operates as a world-class landfill, lauded by international experts for its design. But its ambitions stretch further.
The facility is licenced to generate up to 22 megawatts of electricity from waste, feeding into Zimbabwe’s grid by 2025.
Mr Hallberg, the Swedish official, captured that potential succinctly: “What is presently called a landfill will soon evolve into a much larger hub for electricity production and recycling.”
Perhaps the most striking element of the Geo Pomona project is symbolic.
Harare residents long associated the Pomona site with stench, fire and rot.
Today, it features paved access roads, treatment plants, even recreational spaces.
International delegations may come for technical lessons, but they leave with something less tangible: the sense that African cities can transform liabilities into assets, refuse into renewal and dumpsites into diplomatic magnets.
