The east side of Monavale Vlei wetland in Harare is under threat after yet-to-be-identified individuals started developments on the area possibly for residential purposes.
By Edgar Gweshe
Monavale Vlei is protected under the Ramsar Treaty of 1971, an intergovernmental treaty that embodies commitments of its member countries to maintain the ecological character of wetlands and to plan for the “wise use” or sustainable use of all of the wetlands in their territories.
Zimbabwe ratified the Ramsar Treaty in 2011 and has domesticated provisions for the protection of wetlands under the Environmental Management Act.
The country has seven wetlands that have been declared as Ramsar sites and these include the Monavale Vlei, Cleveland Dam, Mana Pools, Lake Chivero, Driefontein Grasslands, Chinhoyi Caves and the Victoria Falls National Park.
Interviewed residents from Mablereign told NewsDay Weekender that early this year, a group of individuals came and started pegging on the Monavale Vlei wetland and this raised suspicion among the residents that the wetland was under threat.
Alarmed by the development, the concerned residents engaged the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) as well as the Harare City Council in a bid to save the wetland from destruction.
The developments on the wetland, however, continued and on Friday, NewsDay Weekender witnessed a group of individuals with a front-end loader clearing part of the east side of Monavale Vlei.
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Residents had to call the police to evict the invaders after they had resisted instructions from EMA officials who had earlier on been called to stop their illegal developments on the land.
The invaders dispersed as soon as the police arrived and no arrests were made.
A representative of the Harare Wetland Trust told NewsDay Weekender that they were extremely concerned over the threats being posed to the survival of Monavale Vlei wetland.
“What is happening at Monavale is illegal. The area is a gazetted wetland and an international site under the Ramsar Treaty, which Zimbabwe is signatory to,” the official said.
“To destroy the site flies in the face of the Ramsar Treaty. The place must be kept in its natural state for the benefit of everyone not to be used to build houses for a few individuals.”
The Trust added that tampering with wetlands will increase water scarcity as the wetlands are an important source of water for Harare.
According to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), destruction of wetlands has led to a drastic fall in the water table levels within Harare.
Commenting on the threat to Monavale Vlei, Birdlife Zimbabwe said in a statement that water insecurity in Harare was increasing due to the destruction of wetlands.
Birdlife Zimbabwe said that “resulting pressures from development, informal agriculture and pollution” were among the major threats to wetlands adding this had negative impacts on fresh water provision for the citizens of Greater Harare.
“The Monavale Ramsar site represents the model of a restored wetland that can and should be duplicated around Harare to ensure the future provisioning of water to the City of Harare in the face of a growing City and a changing climate,” Birdlife Zimbabwe said.
EMA spokesperson Steady Kangata described the developments in Monavale as illegal.
“Any development on a wetland has got to have the authority of EMA and as far as we are concerned, we have not issued any permit on the Monavale wetland. In other words, what is happening there is illegal,” he said.
The Harare Wetland Trust and Birdlife Zimbabwe are adamant that no permits for development on wetlands should be issued. Harare wetlands are among the primary sources of water for residents of Harare.
Major threats to the survival of wetlands in Harare have largely been industrial and residential development programmes which are often implemented while paying a blind eye to the need to preserve wetlands.
