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as some of them consume fish from the heavily polluted river.
The fish, mostly bream, are usually sold for as little as $1 each at beerhalls in the city.
The river is polluted with effluent from burst sewers while companies in Bulawayo’s Belmont industrial area also dump chemicals that include mercury, lead and chromium 6 into storm drains, which deposit the chemicals into the river.
It has emerged that although communities living downstream in Umguza and Nyamandlovu were the most affected by the toxins, Bulawayo residents who eat the fish were also at risk.
Residents who often buy the fish said they had a darker colour compared to other fish of the same species.
“Sometimes I buy fish at Masina Beerhall in Luveve. The fish there are cheaper compared to other places. However, the bream that is sold is darker than the ones my wife sometimes buys at supermarkets. At times, the beerhall fish are smelly,” said Mr Thabani Tshuma, a Gwabalanda resident.
Another resident, Mrs Sikhulekile Nyoni said only a drunk person could buy the fish sold at beerhalls because they looked unhealthy.
In an interview yesterday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Gerald Gwinji, said in high doses, toxins in the fish could prove fatal to human beings.
“I am not privy to the analysis that was made of the water, but people can die from poisoning by heavy metals like lead and mercury, if the concentrations are high enough,” said Dr Gwinji.
Last week, a medical doctor said some of the effects of cumulative poisoning that could result from eating animals that drank from the polluted river could manifest even after 20 years or in other generations.
The doctor said some of the horrifying effects included giving birth to congenitally malformed children or having extremely dull children, while chromium 6 caused various forms of cancer.
Stakeholders who include the Environmental Management Agency, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, and villagers in Umguza have called for a collective approach to stop pollution of the river.
They appealed to companies in Bulawayo who were discharging untreated waste into the river to stop so that the river could be rehabilitated and be the source of agricultural livelihood that it used to be.
Vegetables irrigated using the water were found to be unsuitable for export as they had high levels of toxins.
Online Reporter