Reuters AlertNet Lite - Untreated sewage polluting Harare water supply

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Untreated sewage polluting Harare water supply

15 Jan 2007 11:05:43 GMT
Source: Reuters

HARARE, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's biggest sewage plant has broken down, sending tonnes of raw effluent into a major river and polluting the water supply of the capital Harare, city authorities said on Monday.

Harare's Firle sewage plant has been down since last week and requires at least 20 billion Zimbabwean dollars (U.S.$80 million) to fix, a huge burden for a country already in the grip of its worst economic crisis in decades.

Officials from the national water authority said half of the raw sewage from Harare -- a city of some 1.5 million -- was now discharged into a river that flows into the capital's main water reservoir, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported.

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority declined to comment further on the issue on Monday. But the Herald said the discharge of the untreated sewage was "posing a serious health hazard downstream."

Harare's sewage crisis is the latest symptom of an economic crisis which has left the country close to collapse and many key infrastructure facilities from roads to power plants badly in need of upgrade or repair.

Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate of 1,281 percent and unemployment has surged to about 80 percent under an economic crisis many critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's government.

The Herald said the Firle plant was completely inoperable.

"Biological nutrient removal plants, inlet works, primary settling tanks, biofilters and effluent pumps as well as clarifiers, digesters and boilers at the plant are all down," the newspaper said.

Mugabe, 82, and the southern African country's sole ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, denies he has ruined one the continent's most promising economies, saying it is a victim of sabotage by opponents of his black nationalist policies.

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Last updated:Mon Jan 15 11:06:53 2007