UK firm vows to go ahead with BCC waste management project

UNITED Kingdom-based Pragma Leaf Consulting Zimbabwe (PLC) company has vowed to forge ahead with implementing a proposed US$150 million solid waste-to-energy project despite Bulawayo City Council terminating the contract.

In November 2018, the two parties signed a contract for the treatment and disposal of municipal solid waste.

The contractor was to mobilise resources and commence operations within 120 days of signing the contract.

Bulawayo City Council

However, according to a report by the local authority, Pragma Leaf Consulting lacks zeal in implementing the project citing that no meaningful development has taken place.

According to the report, the director of Health Services Dr Edwin Sibanda said: “Since 2018, the contractor has been coming up with various excuses such as Covid-19 in 2019 and 2020 which they claimed affected their movements and that of their funders.”

Yesterday, PLC officials told Business Chronicle that they are not perturbed by the purported cancellation of the contract.

The project that was granted national project status by the Government is going ahead, PLC said.

National status is awarded to projects which have significant capital outlay in terms of equipment, services, and skills not presently available within the country.

In an emailed response to the Business Chronicle, the firm said council has not communicated with them on the contract cancellation.

“There was no communication from the local authority,” Pragma Leaf Consulting said.

“We cannot take legal action or take them to court over an issue or action we have not been formally notified of. As far as we are concerned, we are proceeding with the project.”

Pragma Leaf Consulting said the agreement was signed in December 2018 and mobilisation started in 2019 and Covid-19 stalled all activities for nearly two years: “nonetheless we have started implementing phase 1 of the project.”

The scope of the project was to convert council waste to biodiesel, electricity and biogas and bridge the energy gap in the country while creating meaningful jobs.

The major highlights of the contract entailed Pragma Leaf Consulting designing, constructing and operating a sorting facility and operating a processing facility that turns municipal solid waste into energy using various technologies.

Added to that, the firm was expected to also design and construct a power plant of sufficient capacity to provide electricity.

But council also raised concern that “the scope of the project seems to have scaled down to a material recovery facility only for now and this will not have any impact on the current solid waste management challenges which the city is facing.”

A report prepared by Pragma Leaf Consulting seen by Business Chronicle gives timelines dating from the initial letter submitted to the Town Clerk’s office on October 12, 2012 introducing to undertake the baseline study on waste in Bulawayo.

On April 7, 2014, council replied and approved PLC to undertake a full feasibility study.

The whole initiative came when Comesa commissioned PLC to undertake baseline waste management studies in Bulawayo, Lusaka, and Mombasa.

The document indicates that on June 15, 2015, the project funding was approved by Green3Power International, USA (100% funding for US$68 million).

“Unfortunately, the Funder and technical partner pulled out due to BCC’s delays in approving the project and reinvested the amount in a similar project in Senegal,” reads part of the document.

PLC says it signed an agreement of sale on July 7, 2015 for stand 15451 Westondale and paid a deposit of US$6 000 for the industrial stand to the council.

A month later, an enquiry is said to have been sent to the Town Clerk’s office on what was holding the project is moving forward but no response was received, PLC says.

Then on 3 February 2016, the project was approved during a full council meeting and a resolution was passed granting PLC rights to the Bulawayo City Waste.

“Pragma Leaf was never advised officially of approval. PLC was advised that the matter has been referred to the Ministry of Local Government in Harare for approval,” the document further indicates.

PLC says between March 2019 and April 2020 it submitted several quarterly project reports through email to council, however, “we got no official acknowledgement nor did we receive any comments on the contents of the report.”

“On 20 September 2022, we received notification from council cancelling the offer for additional land but it had no signature or name on the first letter received causing doubts on its authenticity,” read the document.

Again, the firm said it received correspondence from the council on January 19, 2021 giving notice to cancel the contract.

It responded in March 2021 by engaging lawyers raising several issues with no response from the council.-chronicle.cl.zw