HARARE residents are angered by the government's decision to allow Geo Pomona, a private company, to take over waste management in the capital, a move that will cost the cash-strapped City Council US$9 million annually.
Starting next year, Geo Pomona will be responsible for waste collection in the capital, collecting 650 tonnes of refuse daily at US$40 per day.
The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) director Reuben Akili said the deal was imposed on the City without proper consultation.
"The issue of Pomona has been imposed on the residents of Harare and it lacked the citizens participation. We are also shocked that the local authority made another decision which excluded the residents in the decision-making process.
"At some point in time, it was the Geo Pomona that wrote a letter to the Ministry of Local Government to collect waste. In an ideal situation that letter should have been addressed to the local authority but unfortunately, you actually see that the letter was written to the central government," said Akili.
Geo Pomona a company established in 2022 after a Dutch waste management firm, Geogenix BV, secured a US$350 million waste-to-energy deal with the city.
Harare City Council has been struggling with refuse collection with piles of rubbish frequently seen in both residential areas and the central business district.
Akili questioned whether the City of Harare would be able to sustain the partnership with Geo Pomona.
"It would have been a good situation where the local authority consulted the residents in the decision-making process. This is the privatisation of work and we really need to introspect to say can the local authority itself be able to sustain such an arrangement when it could not sustain the previous arrangement," he said.
Akili further added that shrouding the deal in secrecy raises eyebrows.
"When residents are thrown at the periphery of local governance we build perceptions among residents that this whole arrangement is beyond service provisions. People begin to believe that there are some or there will be perceptions that there are irregularities," said Akili.
