Chronicle Editor
THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has taken to the courts to try and get councils to stop polluting water bodies with sewage and upgrade treatment plants.
Years of neglect by councils led by officials whose preoccupation is to accumulate as many residential stands as possible, has led to dilapidated infrastructure and death of innocent residents.
In Bulawayo, a diarrhoea outbreak in Luveve and surrounding suburbs caused by water shedding and vandalism of pipes led to the death of 13 residents, including children and over 1 500 infections.
Yesterday, we reported that EMA has taken Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to court for failing to upgrade its water treatment plants and sewer systems, which has resulted in raw sewage flowing into the water bodies which provide potable water to residents.
The agency wants the court to direct council to repair its sewer pipes and water treatment plant to ensure proper treatment of effluent before discharge into the environment.
EMA said since 2011, BCC has been largely responsible for the pollution of water by carelessly discharging raw effluent into rivers and streams such as the Bulawayo Spruit River, commonly known as Mazai River and Matsheumhlophe, which are critical water sources that provide potable water and are used for agricultural purposes for downstream communities.
This is not the first such lawsuit this year.
In January, EMA filed papers seeking a High Court order to stop Norton Town Council from releasing raw sewage into Manyame Dam which provides potable water to Harare and surrounding towns.
It also wants the council to rehabilitate, repair and upgrade its water treatment plants and sewer systems to ensure proper treatment of effluent before it discharges it into the environment and water bodies as well as ensuring the licensing of any discharge of the effluent in terms of the EMA Act.
In April, EMA took Beitbridge municipality to court over perennial sewer pollution mostly in high density suburbs.
The real problem is that becoming a councillor has ceased to be a service to one’s community. It is now a get rich quickly scheme.
It is no wonder why most urban councils are in such a mess. There is hardly any forward planning.
Instead, councillors and council officials are stepping on each other’s toes while trying to get the most lucrative land deals.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is seized with a number of cases of corruption in urban councils across the country.
What the greedy councillors are missing is that water is life. Residents need clean potable water as much as they need oxygen.
Perennial droughts have not made the situation any better. So first, there is a shortage of water. Second, the little water that is available is being poisoned by the same people who have been appointed as its custodians.
We urge Government to give EMA the teeth to bite violators of the EMA Act before it’s too late. The poisoning of water that thousands, and in some cases millions, need for survival should be treated as a criminal offence.
Violators of the EMA Act must rot in jail.
Online Reporter