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Latwell Nyangu
THE City of Harare has been blamed for poor planning which has led to the crisis at Lake Chivero. This has led to ZimParks effecting a ban on all fishing activities.
The ban comes after pollution from raw sewage has caused a surge in cyanobacteria, posing health risks to both humans and wildlife.
Raw sewage has been discharged into the Mukuvisi River, which flows into Lake Chivero, and this has created serious health and environmental hazards at the lake.
Speaking during session between the media and ministries, organised by the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, the Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities. Soda Zhemu said, the blame goes to city fathers for poor planning.
“The recent incident of suspected poisoning, as a result of discharge of effluent at Lake Chivero, comes back to planning, especially by the Harare City Council, on waste management and discharge from the houses which are being constructed.
“We are finding out that some of the houses are now being constructed on wetlands, of which none is supposed to be there.
“All this comes back to planning, which the city is responsible for and even upgrades of waste management and waste reticulation systems.”
Minister Zhemu added:
“As a Ministry, working together with them, it is our wish whenever people are being settled, the places must be habitable, they shouldn’t be places which are susceptible to hazards like natural hazards, floods, for instance, to what we witnessed in Budiriro 5B in 2021.
“Some residents were left homeless due to poor planning.
“It is our call that whenever our local authorities are allocating areas of settling people, they should be suitable and properly planned to avoid a repeat of the previous years.”
The Ministry has a target of houses that are supposed to be constructed.
“Initially the target is to facilitate 220 000 housing units.
“In April last year, we realised that we have done 282 000 houses and Cabinet reviewed the target to 1 million.
“As we speak, we have already achieved more than 700 000 housing units, which amounts to more than 70 percent, which indicates a possibility of achieving our target by 2025.
“To all potential home seekers, applications and acquisitions must be above board.
“We have the issue of regularisation and dysfunctional settlements that were created previously where people went on to create their homes without adequate supporting services like roads and shopping centres.
“We don’t want to have a repeat of what happened previously, let us not construct where the stands have not been acquired properly.”
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter