Ruwa residents have accused their local board of complicity in illegal land deals that have resulted in massive destruction of wetklads in the area.
In an interview, Ruwa Residents and Ratepayers Association Trust Chairperson, Badges Chidemo said their efforts to engage with council officials on issues of wetlands destruction have failed to bear fruit.
There is suspicion that officials from the Ruwa Local Board are working in cahoots with land barons to identify spaces of land for sale to home seekers, businesses and churches.
“The Chiremba vlei situated adjacent the Ruwa home industry behind the Chiremba Primary school is under threat and the Ruwa Local Board has been allocating stands to churches on the wetland area since 2016. Construction activities have caused massive destruction on the wetland area.
“The churches have also constructed toilets with septic tanks and this poses a huge health hazard given that residents now depend on the wetlands for water due to the continued absence of running water. We have engaged the Ruwa Local Board over the need to preserve our wetlands but up to now, we have not been able to get a response,” said Chidemo.
He said they had also made efforts to engage the local board over wetlands destruction in Damafalls.
Chidemo said that by ignoring the legal framework governing preservation of wetlands, the Ruwa Local Board was being insensitive to the plight of residents in light if the perennial water shortages in the area.
“Destruction of wetlands will compromise the level of underground water and we are very much concerned that the Ruwa Local Board has chosen to ignore the legal framework governing the protection and preservation of wetlands,” said Chidemo.
According to Chidemo, there is reason to believe that Ruwa Local Board officials are benefitting from the parceling out of stands on wetlands in the area.
The Trust has since written to the Environmental Management Agency seeking clarity on whether the agency was approving land distributions in the area.
The Ruwa Residents and Ratepayers Association Trust is one of the Community Based Organizations that have partnered with the Harare Wetlands Trust (HWT) to preserve wetlands in Harare and its satellite towns.
Efforts to get a comment from Ruwa Local Board Secretary Kumbirai Madanhi were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered.
