HARARE – An environmental campaign group has threatened the City of Harare with court action for pumping raw sewage into Lake Chivero, which the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) says has resulted in the deaths of wildlife and livestock.

Harare Wetlands Trust has given the city a 48-hour ultimatum to address the problem of contamination by raw sewage at Lake Chivero.

ZimParks says thousands of fish, four white rhinos, as well as other wildlife and livestock have died after drinking cyanobacteria contaminated water from the lake.

The authority said the water pollution was largely caused by raw sewage particularly from the Marimba area of Harare.

The Harare Wetlands Trust has engaged the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) demanding immediate action to decontaminate the lake among other things.

“From our client’s professional experience and expertise, our client reasonably believes that the pollution by cyanobacteria in Lake Chivero is caused by the City of Harare’s conduct of constantly dumping raw sewage effluent in Lake Chivero over the years,” the lawyers wrote.

“Our client, being a not-for-profit organisation whose main objective, inter alia, is the environmental protection of all water bodies and aqua bio diversity is deeply concerned that this dire situation can lead to the loss of animal life.

“Our client also understands that people carry out fishing activities in Lake Chivero in which they obtain fish for resale and consumption. This has a ripple effect on people consuming contaminated fish.”

The Harare Wetlands Trust is also worried that the cyanobacteria pollution makes the water in Lake Chivero unsafe and dangerous for human consumption and use.

It said in terms of section 73 of the Constitution, the city as tier of government, has a legal obligation of “decontaminating Lake Chivero as well as the burden of taking preventive measures to ensure that the cyanobacteria pollution does not recur or is otherwise minimised in future.”

The Trust also said City of Harare should notify members of the public through audio, social media handles and district office notice boards that Lake Chivero is contaminated and advise the public against consuming or buying fish from Lake Chivero.

The trust threatened to sue the local authority if it fails to comply with the demand or respond to the letter of demand.

The City of Harare says it held a meeting with its stakeholders, experts and government agencies to look into the issue on Monday. It however maintained that contamination problems are exaggerated.

A city spokesman said: “Further investigations will be done and the city of Harare and the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) will issue a joint statement as soon as possible. Teams are already on the ground to take samples on the particular part of the lake the rhinos drink from.

“Animals are territorial and it appears they drink from the same place. Residents are urged to ignore exaggerated social media and media reports that the whole lake has been contaminated.”