Harare- A damning parliamentary report has exposed a deep disconnect between municipal revenue collection and infrastructure maintenance, revealing that funds meant for sewer repairs have been systematically absorbed into general accounts while critical infrastructure has been allowed to deteriorate for over 15 years.

The Portfolio Committee on Environment, Climate and Wildlife’s inquiry, found that while local authorities collect service fees from residents and the Environmental Management Agency issues financial penalties for pollution, “these funds are frequently absorbed into general municipal accounts rather than being ring-fenced for capital repairs.”

This lack of financial isolation has “diverted resources away from the urgent rehabilitation and expansion of the sewer network.” Furthermore, “bureaucratic delays and procurement hurdles have perennially stalled critical interventions at key sites like the Amalinda Crossing and Morton Jaffray Water Works, allowing critical infrastructure to deteriorate for over fifteen years without effective municipal intervention.”

Harare’s financial mismanagement is well-documented. Mayor Jacob Mafume, appearing before a national commission of inquiry in 2024-5, admitted to serious financial mismanagement and to the council’s continued reliance on outdated financial systems, reportedly including financial records stored on memory sticks, while senior officials received salaries that diverted funds from service delivery.

On revenue collection, Harare collected just 40% of its billed revenue over a nine-month period in 2024, leaving roughly $70 million uncollected each year, according to the council’s own estimate . Non-revenue water stands at 58%, a serious drain on a system already unable to satisfy demand.

The city’s workforce has swelled to more than 10,000 employees with numerous duplicate roles, while its infrastructure continues to collapse. The city operates more than 40 primary schools and 52 health facilities, but records the highest under-five mortality rate in a sample of 10 SADC cities at 67.7 per 1,000 live births.

Funding Plea

The report reveals that local authorities have presented urgent financial requests to the Treasury to avert a total collapse of the metropolitan water supply, because municipal revenues are “entirely insufficient to cover necessary capital expenditures.”

The City of Harare has formally requested USD $5,509,350 from Devolution Funds for the installation of large-diameter trunk mains to stop the daily 80-megalitre discharge of raw sewage at the Amalinda Crossing. The city points to the successful Ruzivo Project as a precedent where similar repairs led to a noticeable drop in cholera cases.

A second request for USD $3,881,094 has been submitted to address critical failures in water production and sewage conveyance, including USD $1,337,000 specifically for the supply and installation of three massive pump sets at the Morton Jaffray Water Works.

Technical teams explicitly warned the committee that if these pumps are not replaced, “the greater part of Harare and the Inkomo Barracks will run completely dry.”

Chitungwiza’s Financial Paralysis

Chitungwiza Municipality’s financial situation is equally dire. The town struggles with a revenue collection efficiency of only 57%, making it heavily dependent on delayed devolution funds for its basic operations.

Approximately 50% of the settlement is classified as informal, including roughly 40,000 illegal structures, many situated on protected wetlands and completely excluded from the municipal billing system. This informality severely hampers the municipality’s ability to generate revenue.

The town requires 112 megalitres of water per day but receives only 12 megalitres from Harare. According to Engineer Talent Mashinga, “Chitungwiza requires over 50 megalitres daily for the sewer system to function effectively” . The shortfall continues to clog and collapse the reticulation network.

Works Director Engineer, David Duma said an adequate water supply is the linchpin to any lasting solution.

“Without adequate water, we cannot completely resolve the sewer challenges. We continue to call for Chitungwiza to have its own water source because water is central to improved sewer management”.

To address its crisis, Chitungwiza has proposed a comprehensive Cholera Alleviation Program with a projected budget of $426.3 million. This includes $50.6 million for the development of the Muda Dam to secure an independent water source, $45 million for the installation of 90,000 prepaid water meters, and $120 million for the construction of a new 90-megalitre treatment plant.

Enforcement Failure

The report also exposes the inadequacy of environmental enforcement mechanisms. The Environmental Management Agency has perennially taken local authorities to court, fining Norton Town Council in 2014 and issuing statutory orders and tickets to the City of Harare as recently as February 2024 for illegal effluent discharge.

However, “traditional litigation and enforcement mechanisms have proven inadequate; local authorities routinely bypass compliance or escape conviction by blaming external factors.”

Since 2021, EMA has issued nine tickets and environmental protection orders to Harare City Council for the continued discharge of raw sewage into Lake Chivero. The agency has also filed a High Court application seeking to compel the municipality to rectify its “deplorable water reticulation system” . Despite these interventions, the council has continued pumping millions of litres of untreated sewage into Lake Chivero.

The ecological fallout has now reached the courts. Kuimba Shiri Bird Sanctuary owner Gary Stafford, together with the Zimbabwe Wildlife Africa Trust, has filed a separate lawsuit seeking US$86,000 in damages from the council for losses linked to the contamination.

Committee Calls for Reforms

The committee’s recommendations represent a demand for fundamental governance reform. It calls for a mandatory policy of revenue ring-fencing, whereby all income collected for wastewater and solid waste management services is legally cordoned off from general municipal accounts and “strictly and exclusively reinvested into the maintenance, rehabilitation and expansion of the specific sewer networks and treatment facilities from which the revenue was derived.”

It recommends granting independent “Water Authority Status” to Chitungwiza Municipality by 31 December 2026, to manage its own water sources, specifically the Prince Edward Dam, “thereby drastically reducing its precarious reliance on the City of Harare’s overwhelmed infrastructure.”

It calls for repealing outdated sanitation statutes and implementing contemporary by-laws to operationalize the “Polluter Pays Principle,” ensuring that “commercial or industrial entities responsible for environmental degradation bear the direct financial cost of remediation.”

And it recommends a Presidential Declaration of a State of Emergency for the metropolitan water pollution hotspots by 31 December 2026, to “bypass slow municipal procurement hurdles, accelerate immediate stabilising measures, and facilitate the mobilization of resource networks.”

The report concludes that without “a massive, coordinated capital injection exceeding USD $500 million and a fundamental overhaul of the administrative approach to wastewater governance, the region will remain trapped in a cycle of severe public health crises and environmental destruction.”

The path forward, the committee states, “depends entirely on granting institutional independence to local authorities, strictly ring-fencing service revenues and transforming the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ from a passive penalty mechanism into an active tool for ecological restoration.”