Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

'Clean-up could be environmental disaster'
Caiphas Chimhete, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
July 10, 2005

ENVIRONMENTALISTS have warned the government of an "environmental disaster" if it fails to manage the controversial "clean-up" operation, which has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

They said following the wanton demolition of homes in several parts of Harare, families camped along Mukuvisi River were now polluting the stream, which feeds into Lake Chivero, the city's main source of drinking water.

Apart from that, they said, the demolitions had put a huge strain on natural resources such as trees, water and sand as massive reconstruction takes place both in rural and urban areas.

There has been increased poaching of firewood - causing massive deforestation - as families whose houses were destroyed, cut down trees to keep themselves warm during cold winter nights.

The director of Municipal Development Partnership (MDP), Shingirayi Mushamba, said an environmental and health catastrophe was looming if government fails to urgently provide alternative sources of energy, accommodation and other social amenities such as toilets and running water to the displaced people.

"Right now people are camped along Mukuvisi River, polluting the river and our drinking water, which is a health hazard. The council would need more chemicals to purify the water," Mushamba said.

Already Harare's water source, Lake Chivero, is under threat from the fast growing hyacinth weed, raw sewage and industrial discharge.

Hyacinth can destroy native habitats, and high rates of transpiration through the weed's leaves during summer can cause up to four times the loss of water from normal water surface evaporation.

Environmentalists blame the spread of the weed on the discharge of effluent, particularly raw sewage into Lake Chivero, which has worsened after evictees camped along Mukuvisi and other small streams that feed into Lake Chivero.

They relieve themselves in areas around the banks of the rivers because they have no toilets.

An environmentalist with a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) reiterated that disaster was looming in Harare.

He said apart from cutting down trees and contaminating water bodies, the operation has also polluted the atmosphere.

There has been a lot of uncontrolled burning of hazardous objects and chemicals during and after the demolitions, which have been condemned by the international community.

"Tyres and drums, which contained hazardous chemical residue, were burnt in places such as Siya-So, emitting dangerous gases into the atmosphere. It is not good for the environment," said the environmentalist, who requested anonymity saying it would strain his organisation's relations with government as they were working together to rectify the problem.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) shadow minister for environment and tourism, Edwin Mushoriwa, said the operation had exacerbated environmental degradation in both rural and urban areas.

He said the controversial exercise had disturbed the "ecological balance" as people cut down trees for firewood while others build makeshift homes, especially in the rural areas.

"If you drive to areas such as White Cliff, Chitungwiza and Caledonia at night you see little fires almost everywhere because people are cutting down trees to keep themselves warm," said Mushoriwa adding, "no one will replace the trees."

Mushamba said sand poaching was also likely to increase in areas such as Epworth, Budiriro and Glen View as construction of houses in White Cliff and Hopley farm begin.

"Unless government puts preventative measures, we will see increased sand poaching, creating pits almost everywhere. They will be breeding places for mosquitoes," Mushamba said.

Mushoriwa said deforestation was more pronounced in rural areas, where initially the displaced people had no homes, are cutting down trees to built pole and dug houses.

He blasted government for demolishing housing structures without putting any measures to address the impact of the operation, environmentally, socially and economically.

"This confirms what we have been saying all along that it is not a clean-up. If it was genuine, how come refuse has piled in every street in Harare? It has not been collected for about four months now and they talk about cleaning the city," Mushoriwa said.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP