The City of Harare is concerned over the poor quality of water in Lake Chivero, the main supply dam for its residents.
Mayor Herbert Gomba revealed that there is enormous pollution caused by the disposal of raw sewage into the Lake’s feeder rivers as well as eutrophication caused by urban agriculture. Said Councillor Gomba:
Fertilizers which are being applied by urban farmers are finding their way into the water source.
The other cause being numerous constructions on wetlands and again the fact that EMA and Upper Manyame Catchment Area and the City of Harare have not been working together to make sure that we prevent pollution of the streams that feed into the water source.
We have raised these issues with EMA. They promised that we will do a joint operation to make sure that we arrest that.
Again as the City of Harare, we are looking at coming up with a policy to control urban agriculture because it has numerous consequences.
We are looking at how best we can work with national parks to secure the facility, Chivero as a water source.
The Council is currently spending $US3 million per month to buy water treatment chemicals.
The treated water still fails to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards which stipulate that water for consumption should be odourless and colourless.
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