Every day, according to the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), roughly 250 million litres of raw or partially treated sewage flow out of Harare and into Lake Chivero, the reservoir that supplies drinking water to the capital and its surrounding towns. That figure, reported widely across Zimbabwean outlets in 2025 and repeated by residents' groups this year, is now driving calls for the pollution to be formally declared a national disaster.
The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) made that call explicitly in July 2026. Programmes manager Mable Murambiwa told journalists that unchecked industrial effluent and sewage discharges were violating residents' constitutionally guaranteed right to a clean environment and safe water, according to reporting picked up by both 263Chat and Zimbabwe Situation. CHRA has since drafted a Model Statutory Instrument built on the "polluter pays" principle and is pushing Harare City Council to fast-track a Draft Trade Effluent Management By-law it describes as urgent, particularly with the 2026-27 rainy season expected to bring El Niño-linked dry spells that would concentrate pollutants further by reducing natural dilution in the lake.
The scale of the damage is measurable. A Daily Maverick investigation traced the collapse from what it called "a jewel of Zimbabwe's natural beauty" to a site of "shady deals, crumbling infrastructure and ecological collapse." Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesperson Tinashe Farawo confirmed that cyanobacteria toxins in the water killed four rhinos, three zebras, several wildebeest, four fish eagles and an uncountable number of fish in the surrounding national park in December 2024. Global Press Journal's reporting adds a geological dimension: the lake's depth has fallen from 28 metres to 18 metres because of sediment buildup tied to the pollution, and it now sits among the ten most polluted lakes on the planet, according to that outlet's sourcing.
The council does not dispute its role. Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume told Global Press Journal the city government is "one of the culprits," citing inadequate sewage infrastructure and a lack of resources to upgrade it, while also pointing to industrial dischargers as contributors. EMA spokesperson Amkela Sidange, cited by Zimbabwe Situation, confirmed the agency issued Harare seven tickets and seven environmental protection orders between 2021 and 2025 over broken sewer pipes, malfunctioning reticulation systems and the discharge of partially treated and raw sewage, offences she said made Harare responsible for "more than 50 percent" of the national wastewater pollution statistics on its own.
Residents feel the consequences directly, and financially. Global Press Journal reports that Harare households now spend as much as 20 percent of their income on water that arrives, by their own description, green, dirty and undrinkable, a cost some fear will rise further if privatisation of water services goes ahead. A separate 263Chat report notes that residents petitioning council have specifically cited the coming rainy season as a moment of heightened risk, since reduced rainfall under El Niño conditions would concentrate rather than dilute the pollutants already in the catchment.
Why this is a waste management story, not just a water one
Lake Chivero's crisis is downstream, literally, of the same waste and sanitation failures documented elsewhere in Harare: overwhelmed sewer infrastructure, industrial effluent with no enforced treatment standard, and a council balancing scarce resources against a growing city. Fixing the lake is inseparable from fixing what flows into it, which is why residents' groups are pairing their calls for disaster status with demands for enforceable effluent by-laws rather than one-off clean-up campaigns.
Sources
- Pollution, dead animals and corruption: the tragedy of Lake Chivero, Harare's water supply, Daily Maverick
- Zimbabwe's Capital Contaminated Its Water. Now, Residents Must Pay to Use It, Global Press Journal
- Declare Lake Chivero Pollution A National Disaster – CHRA, The Zimbabwean
- 'Harare continues discharging 250m litres of raw sewage into Lake Chivero', Zimbabwe Situation
- Harare Residents Demand Tough Action on Industrial Pollution, 263Chat
Written by Rufaro
Plain-language guides to getting rid of anything in Zimbabwe, properly.
