Every day, about 570 megalitres of raw or barely treated sewage flow into Zimbabwe’s rivers and soil. That is the figure given by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Environment, Climate and Wildlife in a report released on September 25. According to the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), only 20 of the country’s 63 sewage treatment plants still work. The MPs consider the situation serious enough to ask President Emmerson Mnangagwa to declare a state of emergency by December 31, 2026.
The inquiry focused on Harare and Chitungwiza, where the crisis is most severe. At Amalinda Crossing in the capital, trunk mains that collapsed more than fifteen years ago pour about 80 megalitres of raw effluent into the Mukuvisi River every day. The Firle plant, the city’s largest, treats just 54 of the 144 megalitres it was designed to handle. The Crowborough plant has shut down completely, and the Budiriro pump station has been out of action since 2014. In several suburbs, sewage backs up into residents’ yards and runs into the Marimba River.
Tests show how badly the rivers have deteriorated. Average turbidity stands at 30 NTU, six times the level considered healthy. Biological oxygen demand is 9.48 mg per litre, roughly four times the permitted limit. Dissolved oxygen has fallen to 51.2 percent, below the 60 percent safety threshold. Phosphates are killing fish and fuelling the spread of water hyacinth. These same rivers feed the reservoirs that supply the capital’s drinking water.
In Chitungwiza, a dormitory town of about 750,000 people south of Harare, the networks built in the 1970s and 1980s have long outlived their planned thirty-year lifespan. Its treatment plants run at 1 to 5 percent of capacity, and the Zengeza works has not operated since 2007. Clean water is just as scarce: the town receives only 12 megalitres a day against demand of 112.5. Nearly half of the municipality is classed as informal, and around 40,000 illegal structures sit on protected wetlands. The council collects only 57 percent of its revenue.
For Chitungwiza, the committee proposes a 426.3 million dollar Cholera Alleviation Programme. It would pay for the Muda Dam at 50.6 million dollars, 90,000 prepaid meters at 45 million and a new 90 megalitre treatment plant at 120 million. The MPs also recommend giving Chitungwiza Water Authority status by December 2026, which would let it run the Prince Edward Dam itself. The most urgent repair work in Harare is expected to be finished by June 2027.
This warning is concrete in a country where cholera keeps coming back. The 2008 epidemic killed more than 4,000 people, and another outbreak struck Zimbabwe in 2023 and 2024, again hitting hardest in Harare suburbs without water or sanitation. In the committee’s view, leaving sewage to flow in the open breaches the constitutional right to a safe environment.
The government has not yet responded publicly. A state of emergency would free up funds and speed up repairs by bypassing ordinary procedures. It would also be an admission that decades of municipal management have failed.