Melinda Kusemachibi
Following almost two weeks of speculation on the flow of raw sewer into Masvingo’s two rivers Mucheke and Shagashe, Masvingo City Council has come out in the open to acknowledge responsibility over the discharge of the effluent into the natural water sources.
Videos over the weekend were circulating showing dead fish in and other aquatic life, presumably as a result of toxins discharged along the two rivers.
The local authority released a statement on May 23, to that effect though they maintain the causes of the discharge to be a result of vandalism on sewer reticulation infrastructure.
“Council acknowledges the recent discharge of raw sewer into Mucheke and Shagashe rivers due to blocked sewer main lines in Mucheke A and Rujeko B as a result of vandalism. Big boulders were deposited in manholes thereby choking the sewer lines.
“Another source of discharge was Rujeko Pump station where we experienced pump breakdown. Our engineers are working flat out to repair the pump station. We have attended to the sewer blockages and we also routinely monitor trunk sewer lines,” read part of the statement undersigned by Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa.
The statement also revealed that council has since taken samples of the contaminated water to ascertain if it is raw sewer that caused massive deaths of aquatic life especially fish over the past weekend with residents reportedly picking the dead fish for resell and consumption.
“After the incidents, we collected and sent samples to a reputable laboratory in Harare for tests. We are therefore awaiting the results from the laboratory in order for us to ascertain whether the alleged death of fish was caused by raw sewer discharge or other chemicals that might have been deposited in the water bodies.
“Our engineers have committed to complete repairs at Rujeko pump station by May 26. Our sewer Rodders will always be available to attend sewer bursts. Residents are therefore encouraged to report vandalism,” added the statement.
Masvingo Environmental Management Agency (EMA) office has been reluctant in taking action save for the response in which they just encouraged council to attend to the problems and after further probe they promised to compile a report which they kept on promising to release in form of a statement.
