Story by Wellington Makonese
WASTE management shortcomings by the Harare City Council have been attributed to maladministration, which has seen waste management projects such as the Matapi bio-digester being abandoned.
Several waste management projects have been tabled for the city of Harare over the years to address the littering challenge, with one of them being the Pomona Recycling Project.
Another project is the half-a-million-dollar Mbare Biogas Digester, whose construction commenced in 2015 through a partnership with Synlak Private Limited.
The mega project that was expected to light up Mbare has become a white elephant and a den for illicit activities after the contract was unilaterally cancelled.
“This place is quite strategic for waste management which could save thousands of people of Mbare in terms of lighting and waste management,” said a resident.
Another resident said, “I think the council is not doing enough, especially given the amount of money that has been invested in the project, I came here around 2018 and nothing so far seems to add up.”
While the city council has presented a US$578 million 2024 budget, there is doubt among residents as to whether funds will be put to good use.
“The bio-digester project would have been complete by now if there was accountability, they had a contractor who has failed to deliver and what is more worrying is that the failures continue to get more contracts, the project was initiated to manage volumes of waste from Sunningdale and Mbare instead of going to Pomona but it remains a challenge,” said Harare Residents Trust director, Mr Precious Shumba.
Meanwhile, piles of waste remain uncollected at Market Square bus terminus, with the situation having worsened after ZBC News’ visit on Wednesday last week.
