Close to 400 million litres of raw sewage is being discharged into water bodies, including those that provide drinking water to the country’s major cities everyday as a result of run-down sewer infrastructure and rapid urban expansion.A survey commissioned by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to monitor the quality of water in the country’s water bodies has concluded that due to unrestrained dumping of untreated sewage, pollution levels in some major water bodies had reached alarming levels.It has been established that Umguza River, Lake Manyame, Lake Chivero, and Sebakwe Dam have all been heavily polluted, a development that has adversely affected potable water quality in some urban centres.Harare gets most of its water from Lake Chivero and Manyame Dam.Umguza River feeds into Gwayi River, which is set to provide water for Lake Gwayi-Shangani which is currently under construction.The dam is set to provide potable water to Bulawayo and several urban centres in the Matabeleland Provinces.Water released from Sebakwe dam to Cactus Poort dam supplies Kwekwe Municipality and Redcliff town.Sebakwe is also the main source of water for Sable Chemical Industries, Munyati Power Station and a number of irrigators in the Midlands Province.
