Marondera municipality fined $90 000 for discharging raw effluent into water bodies

Image credit: OpenCouncilMarondera

The Marondera municipality has been fined $90 000 by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) over its continued discharge of raw effluent into water sources.

Council has previously been fined tickets over the same issue.

In its defence, it says its sewage system is not working thus the decision to discharge sewage into Rufaro Dam.

The EMA District Environment Management officer Shuvai Chikombe, “there is no sewage system to talk about in Marondera.

“We have issued them with tickets before but there is no change.

“We had to drag them to court where they were fined $90 000 for discharging raw sewage into Ruzawi River and Rufaro Dam,” she said.

Rufaro is Marondera’s biggest water source but was condemned in 2020 after authorities realised that it was heavily polluted.

The local authority is currently upgrading its water system using $7 million devolution funds.

However, the money is too little for a complete overhaul of the waterworks.

Apart from Rufaro and Wenimbi, the local authority also draws its water from Nyambuya Dam.

In an effort to deal with the water crisis, Council has drilled 16 boreholes in all the wards using devolution funds. -OpenCouncilMarondera