Munene River “Not Critically Polluted”

1 June 2011

Maputo — The Mozambican Health Ministry has concluded that the Munene river, in the central province of Manica, has not been seriously polluted by a rubbish dump established in the Zimbabwean city of Mutare, near the river’s source.

Fears of the impact of the rubbish dump on the river led the Manica provincial government to order laboratory analyses of the river water. These analyses were undertaken by the National Food and Water Hygiene Laboratory, and a technical commission of the Ministry declared that the laboratory results showed “the levels of contamination detected are not critical”.

Nonetheless, the Munene is polluted – but the Ministry report, cited in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, did not blame the Zimbabwean rubbish dump.

Thus the analyses showed, along the course of the river, a high concentration of faecal coliforms. This was not surprising, given that people living near the river use it for bathing, washing clothes and other domestic activity. Human excrement thus easily finds its way into the water.

In the Muzongo area, the water samples showed a relatively high concentration of ammonia – which the Ministry report put down to the extraction of sand for construction activities in that area.

Only a small amount of common garbage was found in the river “which for the moment is not a reason for alarm”, the report said. However, local people said that larger amounts of garbage are washed into the river during the rainy season.

As for the hospital waste supposedly deposited in the Mutare dump, there were no traces of this anywhere along the river.

The report concluded that the river “is not critically contaminated”, and that the Munene water that passes through the Chicamba water treatment station is perfectly safe to drink.

The Mutare rubbish dump is not new – in fact, it was established 60 years ago when Zimbabwe was under British colonial rule. Only recently was it suggested that a poses a threat to the river.

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