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Precious Manomano-Herald Reporter
HARARE City Council will convene a special council meeting to consider a directive from the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, July Moyo, to meet their end of the bargain over the Pomona deal.
This comes as Minister July Moyo wrote to council directing it to rescind its resolutions to suspend its contract with Geogenix B.V on the Pomona Waste to Energy project.
Harare City Council acting spokesperson Innocent Ruwende said they will find a way forward after a special council meeting.
“We received a copy of the letter from the Minister recently so we are going to call a special council meeting to discuss the matter and find a way forward,” he said.
Geogenix B.V wrote to the Government advising it of Harare City Council’s failure to honour its obligations of paying a bill of US$750 000 for May.
The €304 million Pomona dumpsite waste-to-energy project is expected to generate up to 22MW of electricity.
Apart from electricity generation, the project is also poised to generate at least 300 jobs, boost economic growth, and reduce the country’s import bill for electricity with the investor already exploring other investment opportunities in the country.
Recently, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa, said the Pomona dumpsite waste to energy plant model in Harare should be replicated in other cities as it will bring a lot of value to Zimbabwe, especially in terms of good health as cities will be cleaner while more power will be added to the national grid.
She also said the project will certainly bring a lot of value to Zimbabwe in terms of making sure residents are well looked after and their waste is collected on time.
Diseases like cholera and typhoid are caused by poor sanitary conditions hence the need to deal with the Pomona menace.
Millions of dollars of potential revenue were being lost annually as most of the waste being generated in Harare was being carried and processed in neighbouring countries, including South Africa.
The deal was approved by Cabinet on February 14 and signed by Harare City Council and Geogenix BV on March 9.
It has since been granted National Project Status, a development that is expected to speed up its implementation.
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