Health time bomb looms for Harare residents

Zvamaida Murwira

Senior Reporter

THE Ministry of Health and Child Care has instituted investigations into the public health implications of a decision by Harare City Council to allow a cemetery to be established on top of the main trunk of Prince Edward waterworks near Chitungwiza.

The development raises fears of water contamination, reminiscent of the recent Lake Chivero pollution incident that claimed wildlife and fish.

Two weeks ago, Harare City Council was discharging raw sewage into Mukuvisi River, which flows into Lake Chivero, the city’s main water source.

The situation has created health and environmental hazards to both humans and livestock.

It has also emerged that council has granted a permit to a private cemetery project north-west of the Prince Edward water treatment plant along Seke Road.

Residents and stakeholders have raised concern about risks posed by decomposing human remains that can result in the contamination of treated water should there be a line rupture or a burst pipe within the cemetery area.

Stakeholders who spoke to The Herald during a week-long investigation said the cemetery was located too close to the stream feeding into the raw water source, raising chances of contamination of Seke Dam on ground and surface water.

Dead bodies and coffins secrete chemicals and impurities that could be carried by rainwater seeping into graves or buried bodies, which might eventually get into direct contact with groundwater that will inevitably permit seepage to flow, combining with groundwater into the raw water source, causing untold health challenges.

Embalming fluids and preservatives on coffins may contain harmful chemicals like mercury which might also contaminate water, experts have warned.

In an interview, the Permanent Secretary for Health and Child Care, Dr Aspect Maunganidze, said his ministry had constituted a team to make an assessment of the health prudence of allowing a cemetery on that particular area.

“Our team went to assess. They are compiling a report. The minister is likely to issue a statement on it after we go through it,” said Dr Maunganidze.

Harare City Council director of Works, Engineer Zvenyika Chawatama, confirmed that they had issued a permit for the   project.

He said health concerns have been raised, including from within the city’s Department of Water and they were pursuing remedial action.

“Concerns on the water pipeline that passes through the property were recently raised by Harare Water,” said Eng Chawatama, who at the time of the interview last week was the city’s acting town clerk in the absence of the incumbent.

“We have asked our surveyors to pick up the line so that we won’t have structures or graves over it. The other matters raised will be dealt with through an environmental impact assessment process that will be done before the project becomes operational. Environmental Management Agency (EMA) will lead the process and all stakeholders will be consulted.

“In the event that burials are happening before an EMA certificate is granted, then they have to be stopped.”

Questions have also been raised about the issuance of a permit at a time when there was no Environmental Impact Assessment from EMA.

The city’s acting director of Urban Planning, Mr Samuel Nyabezi, defended the decision.

“The permit is issued with conditions; one of which is for an EIA done and approved by EMA. Failure to meet any one of the conditions results in the permit falling away.

“The EIA process is an expensive exercise and it would not be proper for one to incur such high costs where there is no guarantee that a permit will be granted “ said Mr Nyabezi.

Contacted for comment, EMA spokesperson, Ms Amkela Sidange, said they initially conducted an ecological assessment where they recommended for an exclusion of 22 hectares wetland area, leaving 55 ha non-wetland area.

She said after an assessment, an EIA was eventually issued.

Regarding the public health implications, Ms Sidange said: “Issues of health implications as spelt out in the context of handling of dead bodies and their disposal can best be handled from the public health scope.

“Otherwise planning authorities should always be proactive to avert such eventualities, through their environmental health experts and civil engineering department during land use planning and allocation.

“Cemeteries by their nature are a key function in any settlement development and planning authorities should, just like in any other land use planning stage, exercise due diligence.”

Ms Sidange said EMA is continuously calling upon planning authorities to ensure that settlement developments integrate environmental considerations and exhibit best practices to protect the environment and the public.

Health experts spoken to by The Herald expressed reservations about the health prudence of setting up a cemetery in the area.

“That area is bad for a cemetery project to say the least. There are high chances of contamination of the city’s raw water source such as Seke dam which is mostly to be in form of both ground water and surface,” said one public health expert.

“Besides, the procedure of issuing an EIA certificate and the permit include consulting several stakeholders including those in the surrounding areas, something which was not done in the present case.

“We might have a replica of the Lake Chivero water contamination but this time at a huge proportion. We also wonder why the city has not taken heed of recommendations by its own department, the Department of Water, which raised a red flag over the project.”