Let’s turn garbage into power

It’s early days and Harare City Council being what it is, one is never certain the project will come to fruition.

However, history provides and the council should have no excuse. Harare established biogas plants at Firle and Crowborough sewer works several years ago.
Firle alone has the capacity to produce nearly 97 000 cubic metres of biogas in three hours, that’s 1,9 million hours of lighting with a 100-watt bulb.

Disappointingly, they have stopped working. According to a 1986 journal published by the then Department of Energy and Water Resources, the Government assisted towards the construction of more than a hundred biogas plants in rural areas and tertiary institutions in the 1980s.

Currently, the Ministry of Energy and Power Development has revived the projects and over 400 plants have been constructed at homestead level in Hwedza, Sanyati, Chirumanzu, Gutu and Chipinge, according to an article featured on the Ministry of Science and Technology website.

The article says beneficiaries provide labour and finance towards setting up the biogas plants while the Energy Ministry provides the technical expertise.
Biogas, generated by breaking down waste such as human excreta and animal dung, is capital intensive.

The council is going to need US$110 million to fire up the plant, says Councillor Herbert Gomba, who also chairs the city’s water and environment committee.
But I sought answers elsewhere, from the Environmental Management Agency, which is responsible for overseeing Zimbabwe is kept pollution-free.

I wanted to establish the environmental benefits of producing biogas in Harare so far as waste management is concerned, already a tough cookie for the council.
Below is an excerpt of the interview with EMA director Mr Aaron Chigona (AC).

JG: Do you think this plan (biogas project) will work in Harare, both in the sense of improving clean energy supply and eliminating garbage from the streets and dumpsites?
AC: Yes, the plan can work in Harare. It needs the participation of all stakeholders involved in waste management from individuals, community and corporate since garbage is at individual level.

It also requires awareness to the public on the advantages and the process itself. This will enable collection of clean garbage for the project after it will have been sorted at source.

On the elimination of garbage, it’s important to note that garbage consists of different materials including plastic, rubber, glass and metal among other non-biodegradable materials. So in terms of reducing the biodegradable materials, yes it will work.

However, to “eliminate” garbage using a biogas plant is not possible as this requires a more integrated plan for the non-biodegradable materials.
Thus for this to totally remove garbage there is need for collective efforts from other waste recycling players so that what the digesters could not take could then be utilised for other purposes.

JG: What would be the environmental, social and economic benefits of such a plan in Harare?
AC: Environmental benefits include reduced waste leading to reduced occurrence of environmental diseases, reduced air, land and water pollution. Economic benefits include cheap supply of energy, reduced cost of environmental cleaning.

Social benefits — livelihoods improvement due to reduced incidences of environmental diseases, improved water quality, and improved aesthetic value of the environment.

JG: The issue of environmental pollution in Zimbabwe’s urban areas is now a major concern. As EMA, how do you assess the impacts of land pollution on communities, the natural environment etc? How much damage has been caused and how has the agency responded?
AC: The impacts of land pollution can be assessed in various ways:

• Monitoring health trends, e.g. environment pollution-related illnesses such as typhoid, cholera and respiratory diseases like asthma.

• Complaints from the residents on pollution.

• Through aquatic species diversity and quantities- loss or improvement

• Proliferation of water weeds such as the water hyacinth

• The general scenic of the land scape- the shine city-ness of the urban environment.

The damage that has been caused by land pollution needs quantification and constant measuring since environmental pollution is sometimes mobile hence moves from one point to the next.

Being so, the real damage that can be quantified is like size of waste dumps, eutrophication in water bodies, alien invasive species colonisation, size of dongas/gulleys and areas contaminated by burst sewerage water.

EMA responds to these damages by punishing the polluter where the polluter could be identified and for gulleys EMA mobilises communities threatened to rehabilitate these dongas. In case of illegal dump sites EMA gives orders to local authorities to clear up the dumps.

JG: Really, can pollution be effectively controlled in Zimbabwe? What will it take to achieve this?
AC: We have ambient environmental monitoring points for water and air to check on the levels of pollution and these are monitored monthly.
Pollution can be controlled and we have various instruments to control the pollution.

These include the Environmental Management Act and its subsidiary legislation, as well as various policies and strategies that have been put in place.
The major pollution control method is the polluter pays principle where those who pollute the environment pay for the pollution and are ordered to remedy the polluted environment.

However, it is important to note that if the pollution levies and penalties are too high, then it becomes a negative incentive for pollution abatement.
God is faithful.

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