Value of wetlands undermined

green spaces, are replenished only by rainwater and in turn replenish the urban streams and rivers.
Their importance in Harare’s water supply is seriously overlooked and undervalued by both the City Council and relevant Government departments.
Greater Harare sits in the headwaters of the Manyame and Gwebi catchment basin and 6,5 million people currently depend on this invisible source for their water supply. (At current rates this population will double in 12 to 14 years.)
At present, only 600 000 cubic metres of the daily city water requirement of 1,2 million cubic metres is being treated, much of which is lost through major leaks in an outdated reticulation system.
Thousands of cubic metres of wastewater from industrial use and raw sewage from faulty pipes are being discharged into Lake Chivero on a daily basis.
This situation would be far worse if Harare’s wetlands were destroyed, because they provide the following  services, absolutely cost-free.
l Recharging of rivers, headwaters and aquifers of the Mashonaland Plateau. (Headwaters and aquifers contain 97 percent of the world’s unfrozen fresh water.)
l Highly effective filtration of this recharged groundwater, which task would otherwise fall on the expensive and under-capacity Morton Jaffray Waterworks, where even chemical dosing is haphazard.
l Control of groundwater flow, which prevents river siltation and soil erosion, but deposits nutrients which help maintain wetland biodiversity.
l A more efficient carbon sink (an area which absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the air) than forests.
The city’s service delivery of clean and adequate water is clearly woeful. Forty percent of residents have no daily access to clean water and 40 percent lack adequate sanitation. The loss of water through leaks in faulty pipe work is thought to be over 40 percent.
The average water table in Harare has declined from 15m to 30m over the last decade because of wetland loss and illegal sinking of boreholes. The recent gazetting and mapping, in July 2012, of 25 Harare wetlands has caused some panic amongst unscrupulous property developers.
The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management declared the areas in Harare to be wetlands in terms of Section 113 (1) of the Environmental Management Act. As Section 113 (1) authorises the minister to declare any wetland to be an “ecologically sensitive area”.
The gazetting process was flawed as a period for objections was omitted from the Government Gazette.
Therefore the declaration has been repealed for October, to allow for objections, and will be re-gazetted on November 1.
The actual declaration for the protection of these wetlands and mapping is accurate and EMA (Environmental Management Agency) has confirmed that no alterations will be made in this area.
This panic and the rapidly diminishing amount of undeveloped or “not in-filled” land in the more central areas of Harare has caused a flurry amongst voracious “developers”, particularly those with political connections, who are looking to lay claim to anything they can get hold of as they believe its value will increase exponentially in the future.
Their haste has led to an almost complete disregard for EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) procedures and environmental legislation and the Environmental Management Agency appears to be assisting this move by failing to respond to complaints and requests for protective action made by residents in areas which are under threat.
Some of these include Borrowdale West, Gunhill, Lewisam, Monavale and Meyrick Park.
Should this situation not be immediately addressed, there will be little point in expecting that a “normal” life can be lived in Harare for any more than a few years into the future.
Those who will suffer most will be the poor and unemployed in high-density suburbs, who will have no access to clean water, which is a fundamental human right enshrined by the United Nations.
Water-borne diseases will proliferate and overwhelm the already over-loaded health system, the remaining industries in Harare will have great difficulty in continuing to operate and many other as yet unforeseen difficulties will arise.
One of the major concerns is the construction of the Mall of Zimbabwe set to be built in one of the few wetland areas remaining in Harare, near the National Sports Stadium.
The wetland is crucial for sustaining livelihoods in the region through its ability to absorb water in the rainy season and then release it in the dry season.
It is said this ecosystem services approximately 6,5 million people.
The writer is an environment activist based in Harare.