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Beitbridge Bureau

The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has expressed concern over the increasing pollution of ground and surface water sources by urban local authorities, who are discharging at least 366 mega litres of raw sewer into the environment daily.

The agency has also attributed the surge in pollution to ageing sewer treatment infrastructure designs in most town councils, which is being overwhelmed by increasing waste generation and their capacity has been surpassed.

EMA’s manager responsible for Education and Environment, Ms Amkela Sidange, on Tuesday said they had since conducted an assessment on most local authorities’ sewage plants to ascertain the state of affairs.

“An assessment conducted by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) revealed that an estimated 366 mega litres of raw and partially treated sewage is being discharged daily into the environment, particularly from urban local authorities,” she said.

“Out of the identified 70 Sewage Treatment Plants in the 32 urban local authorities with a combined design capacity to receive and fully treat 579.38 mega litres per day, 21 percent are currently down and non-operational.”

Ms Sidange said ambient water quality monitoring results showed high phosphate levels in rivers passing through the main cities and towns.