The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo and Debra Matabvu
HARARE City Council is discharging harmful effluent in water catchment areas due to its dysfunctional sewage treatment plant, it has emerged.
This was revealed by the Environmental Management Agency during its monthly ambient water probes.
The revelation comes soon after the local authority was recently exposed for failing to carry out pollution tests in drinking water sources.
EMA’s Education and Communication Manager, Mr Steady Kangata said: “We carry out tests monthly in water bodies and if we see any irregularities we go back to the catchment area so as to look for possible causes to see how best the problem can be rectified.
“It is during these tests that we discovered that the (Harare) City Council was one of the major culprits discharging effluent in water catchment areas.
“Sewage must be pre-treated before it is discharged into rivers and we have realised that council’s sewage treatment plant is not 100 percent functional.
“There is also an issue of burst manholes from which raw sewage is flowing into drinking water bodies.”
He warned that companies caught polluting water bodies would be shut down and/or fined.
“We cannot order the city council to shut down its operations because it would technically mean shutting down the whole city.
“Council can only be fined and ordered to rectify the problem within a certain period,” said Kangata.
The council topped the 2014 list of polluters after it emerged that it discharged 3 885 mega litres of raw sewage into water sources per day.
Efforts to get a comment from Harare City Council were fruitless yesterday.
Meanwhile, residents have urged the Government to enforce strict environmental regulations to guard against polluting the environment.
Combined Harare Residents Trust chairperson, Mr Mfundo Mlilo said: “I think the issue of monitoring these companies does not lie with the city council alone. There is need for the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and environmental agencies to improve monitoring mechanisms. There is need for a relationship among these institutions.
Chitungwiza Residents Trust chairperson, Mr Marvellous Khumalo said local authorities should prioritise water quality.
“We have always encouraged the local authorities, particularly Harare and Chitungwiza, to carry out thorough tests of water before distribution.
“However nothing much has been done, instead they are focusing on issues such as prepaid water smart meters without addressing quality issues.”
