Chitungwiza residents have expressed anger over Chitungwiza Municipality’s failure to properly manage the sprawling town’s sewer system.
Raw sewage flows from homes in Chitungwiza’s Zengeza 3 suburb, and several other locations thereby putting the health of residents at risk.
A resident of Manda Street in Zengeza 3 told <a href="https://www.zbcnews.co.zw/?p=18638">ZBC News</a> that they are forced to put up with raw effluent flowing from their homes. Said the resident:
<blockquote>
This is what we have to live with every day, this raw sewer flowing from our homes, the stench and to make it worse there is no water.
We have been reporting to the council but nothing is being done now we live in constant fear of our health.
</blockquote>
Another resident claimed the raw sewage flowing from homes has resulted in an outbreak of diarrheal diseases. Said the resident:
<blockquote>
Look at me this is not my body, I haven’t been well as I was suffering from diarrhoea because of this sewer. How are we expected to live under these conditions?
When you report to the council they do not respond and when they do, they just come and poke at the main hole without fixing anything and the problem continues, sometimes they will be demanding money. Yet we pay our rates.
</blockquote>
Chitungwiza is among numerous urban settlements that have recorded cholera cases and deaths this year.
Since Monday last week, Chitungwiza has recorded a total of 69 suspected cholera cases.
Raw sewage can contain harmful bacteria and parasites, including those that cause cholera.
Cholera is a bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration, and it can spread rapidly in areas with poor sanitation and contaminated water sources.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Pindula News

Chitungwiza Residents Castigate Council As Raw Sewage Flows From Homes

Almost 400 mega litres of raw and partially treated sewerage are flowing back to Lake Chivero daily, the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has revealed.
The discharge of untreated sewage into Lake Chivero exposes Harare’s estimated 3.5 million consumers to serious health risks.
As a result, some Harare residents have abandoned drinking or cooking with Lake Chivero’s water, preferring to buy bottled water from shops.
In an interview with the <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/theindependent/local-news/article/200016684/146-000-megalitres-of-raw-sewage-gush-into-chivero">Zimbabwe Independent</a>, Amkela Sidange, environmental education and publicity manager at EMA, said flowing raw sewage has polluted both terrestrial ecosystems and water bodies. She said:
<blockquote>
Surveys by EMA indicate that an estimated 399 mega litres of raw and partially treated sewer are discharged into Lake Chivero (daily), which is one of the most pronounced drivers in pollution of the lake thus contaminating and polluting both terrestrial ecosystems and water bodies.
</blockquote>
The destruction of wetlands across the country due to urban sprawl and the unchecked parcelling out of State land by politically-connected land barons has worsened the situation.
Sidange said there was hope that under the National Wetland Masterplan, the ecologically fragile ecosystems can be preserved. She said:
<blockquote>
Wetland utilisation should only be done under a licence from EMA, failure of which can result in prosecution.
Commendable government efforts have been recorded recently, including the gazetting of the National Wetland Master Plan.
Increasing wetland area under sustainable management is one of the key objectives of the National Development Strategy.
To date, an estimated 252 000 hectares against a target of 500 000 hectares have been put under sustainable management
</blockquote>
Early this week, the City of Harare temporarily closed its water treatment plant due to a phenomenon called “lake turn” at Lake Chivero.
The local government authority explained that the “lake turn” occurred as a result of a sudden weather change on the night of 12 September.
It said the warm and dirty water at the bottom of the lake rose to the abstraction point (the level where water is drawn from the lake to the treatment works for treatment).
As a result, the City shut down “the plant to allow for adjustment of abstraction levels to draw better quality raw water for treatment.”
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

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