Online Reporter
Blessings Chidakwa in MASERU, Lesotho
Lesotho has engaged Zimbabwe to assist it with proper waste management, with Geo Pomona Waste Management invited to that country to forge a partnership.
Residents of the capital city, Maseru, are living next to a dumpsite that has been in use since the 1980s and are exposed to serious health hazards.
Zimbabwean Government officials, Geo Pomona Waste Management, Maseru City Council and local residents have toured the Tsosane dumpsite and a possible landfill, Tsoeneng, to get an appreciation of the situation.
Speaking after a tour of the dumpsite and proposed landfill, Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Engineer Amos Marawa said Lesotho is trying to explore ways on how to work with Zimbabwe on worst management.
“We have been invited to come and see the challenges they are facing, very similar to what we were facing in Zimbabwe, but here I think the situation is more urgent,” he said.
Geo Pomona Waste Management executive chairman and chief executive officer Dr Dilesh Nguwaya said the Lesotho situation is a replica of the former Pomona dumpsite in Harare.
“The residents who are close to this dumpsite are facing problems similar like those faced in Pomona before we came in. When we took over we transformed the dumpsite into a waste management facility,” he said.
Maseru City Council town clerk and chief executive officer Mr Moea Makhakhe said their dumpsite was initially a quarry site.
He said one person dumped their waste at the site and that is how the dumpsite was established.
“We have been stuck with it. It is full of debris, and it poses significant dangers to the community. This is why we went across the Limpopo to invite Geo Pomona here to exchange notes with us and to see what strategic partnerships we can have so that we can get out of this problem,” he said.
The Tsosane dumpsite, which has become an environmental and health hazard due to its proximity to residential areas, will potentially be replaced by a proposed 39-hectare engineered landfill.
Maseru Municipal Council aims to establish the new landfill as part of a comprehensive plan to improve waste management in the city.
This came after Sadc Heads of State recently visited the Geo Pomona Waste Management Site at the invitation of the regional chairman, President Mnangagwa
