A parliamentary report tabled in Harare on 25 September 2026 found that roughly 570 megalitres of raw sewage is being discharged into rivers every day across the metropolitan area, as the City of Harare's wastewater treatment system suffers what the committee described as a systemic collapse, according to The Zimbabwean.
The inquiry was triggered by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), which invited legislators to see first-hand the condition of municipal wastewater infrastructure and the impact on primary water bodies, the report recorded, as reported by The Zimbabwean.
Key takeaways
- Roughly 570 megalitres of raw sewage is being discharged into rivers every day across Harare and Chitungwiza, the parliamentary committee found, as reported by The Zimbabwean.
- The City of Harare's seven primary treatment works have a combined design capacity of 219.5 megalitres per day but are now largely ineffective, the report said, according to The Zimbabwean.
- The Amalinda Crossing trunk main has been out of service for more than 15 years, dumping around 80 megalitres of untreated sewage a day straight into the Mukuvisi River, the report found, as reported by The Zimbabwean.
- Rivers running through urban Harare carry an average turbidity of nearly 30 NTU, about six times the 5 NTU limit treated as healthy, the committee measured, according to The Zimbabwean.
- Submissions to the committee from EMA, the City of Harare and Chitungwiza Municipality all pointed to the same pattern of systemic infrastructure failure, the report said, as reported by The Zimbabwean.
What happened: a parliamentary report on Harare's water pollution hotspots
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment, Climate and Wildlife compiled the water pollution hotspots report on Harare and Chitungwiza and presented it in Parliament on Thursday, according to The Zimbabwean. The committee concluded that the crisis is heavily concentrated in the Harare metropolitan area, where the City of Harare runs a sewer network extending over 5,500 kilometres, fed by seven strategic sewage pump stations at Budiriro, Avonlea, Chisipite, Fidelity, North Eastern, Marlborough and Bradfield, and seven primary treatment works, including the Firle and Crowborough plants, the report said, as reported by The Zimbabwean.
Although those works were designed to handle a combined 219.5 megalitres per day, rapid population growth and ageing assets have left them largely ineffective, the committee heard, according to The Zimbabwean. Site visits singled out Amalinda Crossing, where critical trunk main pipelines have been collapsed for more than 15 years, sending an estimated 80 megalitres of raw sewage a day into the Mukuvisi River and from there into Lake Chivero, the city's main source of drinking water, the report said, as reported by The Zimbabwean.
On water quality, the committee found that urban rivers carry an average turbidity of nearly 30 NTU, about six times the 5 NTU level considered healthy, with the report warning that high turbidity signals dangerous concentrations of suspended solids that block sunlight and damage fish gills, according to The Zimbabwean.
Specification read: what 570 MLD of untreated discharge means for a buyer
Putting the headline figure into buyer units, 570 megalitres per day is roughly 570,000 cubic metres per day, the volume a mid-sized European capital treats in a single 24-hour period, the report's scale suggests, as reported by The Zimbabwean. Against that, the existing seven primary works were nominally rated at 219.5 MLD combined, but the committee found them largely ineffective, so the practical working capacity is well below that figure, the report said, according to The Zimbabwean. The 80 MLD Amalinda Crossing overflow alone is equivalent to a medium-sized city's full daily flow arriving at a single failed pump station and never entering treatment, the committee recorded, as reported by The Zimbabwean.
The class of project this event points to is a full municipal train at metropolitan scale: coarse and fine screening, grit removal, primary clarification, biological treatment such as A2O, MBR, MBBR, SBR or UASB depending on influent strength and footprint, followed by tertiary filtration and disinfection (chlorination or UV) before discharge or reuse, the report's description of overloaded primary works and a 5 NTU receiving-water target implies, with coagulation and DAF-style suspended-solids polishing likely needed to bring the reported 30 NTU river water back into spec. (general industry range, not from the sources). The failure sits at the trunk-main and primary-treatment stage, before biological and tertiary stages can do their work.
For a plant manager or procurement lead reading this, if your facility is in the 50,000 to 200,000 m³/day band, runs on a conventional activated-sludge or biofilm train, and is discharging to a receiving water where regulators are enforcing a low-NTU, low-faecal limit, this case underlines how quickly a single failed trunk main or pump station can overwhelm the whole works and force emergency bypasses, the report's findings suggest, as reported by The Zimbabwean. Operators scoping new builds, retrofits or emergency bypass handling in this range can compare options on our Municipal water hub, review biological-stage sizing in our Integrated Sewage Treatment range, and read about a comparable high-COD case in our EGSB Reactor for High COD Wastewater: 2026 Design & Cost Guide. For context on similar overload events in the region, see our Data Center Wastewater & Cooling Blowdown Treatment in Harare, Zimbabwe (2026 Engineering Guide) and our broader Industries We Serve overview.
FAQ
What size of treatment plant does a 570 MLD overflow imply for a buyer scoping a replacement works?
The committee's 570 MLD figure is the volume bypassing treatment, not the design target. The seven existing primary works were nominally rated at 219.5 MLD combined but were found largely ineffective, so any rebuild has to be sized above current peak dry-weather flow plus a margin for growth, with biological and tertiary stages added on top (general industry range, not from the sources), as reported by The Zimbabwean.
Which treatment stages failed first in the Harare case, and where should a buyer focus capex?
The report points to trunk-main and pump-station failure at Amalinda Crossing, with the 80 MLD spill into the Mukuvisi River blamed on a collapse that has been in place for over 15 years, so collection and primary-transfer reliability is the first bottleneck a buyer should price (general industry range, not from the sources), as reported by The Zimbabwean.
What discharge quality would a buyer need to specify to bring the Mukuvisi back to a 5 NTU target?
The committee measured nearly 30 NTU in urban rivers, six times the 5 NTU healthy limit, so any new or refurbished works discharging to the Mukuvisi or Lake Chivero needs tertiary suspended-solids removal (sand filtration or DAF-style polishing) on top of biological treatment, with UV or chlorination for pathogen control, before the receiving water can approach 5 NTU (general industry range, not from the sources), as reported by The Zimbabwean.
How should a procurement team structure supplier selection for a project of this scale?
For works in the 50,000 to 200,000 m³/day range, buyers typically run a two-stage process: a technical pre-qualification on reference plants of comparable size, followed by a commercial bid on a defined scope (screening, primary, biological, tertiary, disinfection). Lead times for biological reactors and MBR modules usually drive the schedule, so these should be specified early (general industry range, not from the sources), as reported by The Zimbabwean.
