MARTIN MAWAYA
GWERU-As the country joins the rest of the world to celebrate environmental day, Gweru City Council has been found wanting for discharging untreated raw effluent into the river streams in and around local auhority.
The local authority blamed power outages and the ageing infrastructure for poor sewer reticulation system which is no longer able to contain the growing population.
Resultantly, it was penalized by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) for polluting the environment and exposing the aquatic ecosystems.
Speaking at Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) engagement meeting recently, ward 8 Councilor, Notal Dzika revealed that council is paying heavily for polluting water bodies.
He however did not disclose how much the local authority was paying as penalty adding that the discharge of raw sewage into Gweru River was a result of poor pumping capacity and power blackouts at the sewage works.
“Your council is heavily fined by EMA every month for polluting the environment and discharging raw sewer into the nearby rivers due to the load shedding. When there is no power it means we are not able to pump raw sewage at our pumping stations which results I raw sewage being discharged in nearby streams,” said Councilor Dzika.
Spewing raw sewage into the water bodies endangers aquatic life and downstream communities who rely on the rivers water for domestic purposes.
Besides posing danger to the urban communities, the discharge has also the potential of affecting the Mthijoni Villagers in Lower Gweru.
This is despite the fact that every year the local authority has a budget for the rehabilitation of sanitation and water infrastructure system but it is failing to fix the sewer system which discharges untreated human waste directly into the environment.
GRRA executive director, Cornilia Selipiwe told The Midweek Watch that “the local authority should come up with concrete measures to deal with the perennial problem that has gone for years without being rectified as it is a health hazard to residents living downstream”.
He added that EMA as the regulatory authority should also not focus on penalizing council but should proffer mitigatory strategies so that the local authority does not continue contaminating the environment.
“EMA should avoid issuing out countless tickets as fines without necessarily putting in place strategies to make sure the urban local authority conclusively address the perennial problem,” said Selipiwe.
However, EMA Midlands spokesperson Oswald Ndlovu said the regulatory authority is engaging with the local authority so that a lasting solution to the problem can be found.
The Midlands capital has been relying on obsolete sewer reticulation plants built during the Rhodesian era.
These include Pakamisa, Mkoba 4, Cambridgeshire and Nashville sewer treatment plants.
Discharging the raw sewage and industrial effluent by council is in direct contravention of section 57(1) as read with section 70 of the Environmental Management Act Chapter 20:27, which prohibits the discharge or application of any poison or toxic, noxious or obstructing matter, radio-active waste or other pollutants into the aquatic environment in contravention of water pollution control standards.
