Online Reporter
Gibson Mhaka-Zimpapers Politics Hub
FOR years, the smoke rising from Richmond Landfill, popularly known as Ngozi Mine, has been more than an unpleasant feature on Bulawayo’s skyline.
For residents of Cowdray Park, Emakhandeni, Luveve and surrounding suburbs, it has become a reminder of a problem that has refused to go away — the challenge of managing the city’s waste in a manner that protects public health, safeguards the environment and keeps pace with a growing urban population. It is against this background that the proposed engagement between the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) and Geo Pomona Waste Management assumes significance.
The council’s decision to proceed with engagement with the private waste management company, following a directive from Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe, could mark a new chapter in the city’s long-running battle with waste management.
More importantly, it signals an acknowledgement that the scale of the problem requires fresh thinking, investment and a partnership capable of bringing modern waste management methods to Bulawayo. The issue has increasingly moved beyond the ordinary question of refuse collection.
The recurring fires at Ngozi Mine, smoke pollution and the accumulation of waste have turned the landfill into an environmental and public health concern for communities living nearby.
During a recent fact-finding visit by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, BCC Director of Health Services Dr Edwin Mzingwane acknowledged that the local authority had struggled to consistently cover waste because of inadequate equipment.
“We have not been doing that as religiously as we should because of a lack of equipment,” he said.
That admission is important because it points to one of the central challenges facing local authorities across the country — the gap between the demands of modern urban waste management and the resources available to municipalities. Richmond Landfill was commissioned in 1994 as Bulawayo’s 12th refuse disposal site after earlier dumpsites, including Hyde Park, had reached capacity.
It was initially designed to serve the city for about 20 years, meaning that its continued use well beyond its original lifespan has inevitably placed additional pressure on the facility.
The question, therefore, is no longer simply how to keep Ngozi Mine operating.
It is how to fundamentally change the manner in which waste is collected, transported, processed, treated and ultimately disposed of. This is where the proposed Geo Pomona engagement becomes particularly significant.
The company operates the Pomona Waste Management facility in Harare, which has increasingly been presented as a model for modernising waste management. The City of Bulawayo itself has previously explored the possibility of developing a waste-to-energy project at Ngozi Mine, recognising the potential of turning waste from an environmental burden into an economic resource.
Its sustainability plans have also identified recycling, waste segregation and private-sector partnerships as possible components of a more sustainable system. The proposed engagement with Geo Pomona could, therefore, provide an opportunity to move some of those ideas from policy discussions towards practical implementation.
For Bulawayo, this could mean a system in which waste is not simply dumped and left to accumulate, but is increasingly viewed as a resource that can be sorted, recycled, processed and, where technically and economically viable, converted into energy.
That would represent a significant conceptual shift. It would also fit into the broader national conversation around modernising Zimbabwe’s urban centres and improving service delivery.
Government’s intervention is particularly notable because the Ngozi Mine problem has persisted through successive interventions.
The latest move puts the issue firmly on the national agenda and demonstrates that waste management is not merely a municipal housekeeping issue, but one with wider implications for public health, environmental protection, urban development and the quality of life of citizens.
Cowdray Park legislator Arthur Mujeyi said residents welcomed the intervention.
“We would like to thank the President for the resolution that has been made regarding the Ngozi Mine area.
“We are the living embodiment of the mantra that this administration will leave no one and no place behind because we feel happy that we have been remembered through the action taken by His Excellency,” he said.
The significance of such sentiments lies in the fact that communities living closest to the landfill have borne the consequences of the problem for years.
For them, a successful intervention would not be measured by the signing of an agreement or the commissioning of a project, but by whether the smoke disappears, refuse is properly managed and their neighbourhoods become healthier places in which to live.
Recent reports indicate that residents of Cowdray Park have continued to raise concerns over smoke and fumes from the dumpsite, while council has authorised its management to engage Geo Pomona and report back on the outcome of negotiations. That distinction is important.
The council’s resolution is a beginning, not the end of the process.
The proposed partnership still has to be translated into a workable arrangement that addresses the city’s technical, financial and environmental requirements. It must also deliver tangible benefits to residents. This is where the experience of Harare becomes relevant, but not necessarily as a blueprint to be copied wholesale.
Bulawayo has its own geographical, economic, infrastructural and environmental realities.
What can be borrowed is the principle that waste management requires investment, technology, professional management and a long-term vision rather than periodic firefighting.
Indeed, Ward 26 councillor Mpumelelo Moyo has argued that the debate should focus on the technical and financial capacity required to deal with the crisis, pointing to Geo Pomona’s operations in Harare as part of the reason the company is being considered.
The intervention also presents an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the central Government, the local authority and the private sector. For too long, waste management has largely been viewed through the narrow lens of municipal responsibility.
Yet the scale of modern urban waste generation requires a broader approach involving municipalities, Government, private companies, residents, informal recyclers and environmental agencies. That is why the proposed Geo Pomona engagement should be seen within the wider question of how Bulawayo intends to manage urban growth.
A clean city is not simply an aesthetic objective.
It is part of public health, tourism, investment, environmental sustainability and economic productivity. A city struggling to manage its waste inevitably carries costs beyond the landfill itself.
Conversely, a modern waste management system can create opportunities in recycling, energy generation, employment and environmental rehabilitation. There is, however, an equally important responsibility to ensure that the process of engagement is transparent, properly structured and compliant with the applicable legal and procurement requirements.
Some residents’ and civil society groups have raised concerns over the process through which the proposed arrangement is being pursued.
Those concerns should not obscure the urgency of the environmental problem, but neither should urgency remove the need for accountability. The two objectives can coexist.
Bulawayo needs an urgent solution to Ngozi Mine, but it also needs a sustainable arrangement capable of standing the test of time.
This is ultimately what will determine whether the Geo Pomona engagement becomes a turning point.
If negotiations produce a technically sound, financially sustainable and environmentally responsible arrangement, the benefits could extend well beyond the landfill.
For residents of Cowdray Park, Emakhandeni and Luveve, it could mean cleaner air and a better living environment. For the city, it could mean a more efficient waste collection and disposal system. For the economy, it could open opportunities in recycling, waste processing, energy and related industries.
And for the Government, it would provide another practical avenue through which its broader urban renewal and service delivery agenda can be translated into tangible outcomes.
The Ngozi Mine crisis has taken years to develop. It will therefore not disappear overnight.
But the decision to bring new investment, private-sector expertise and a stronger national focus to the problem offers an opportunity to finally move the conversation from recurring fires and accumulated refuse to a modern, sustainable waste management system.
For Bulawayo, that is the real promise of the Geo Pomona chapter.
