Curb Lake Kariba pollution, ZEMA urged
THE Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) and Zimbabwe Environmental Management Agency (EMA) should curb pollution of water in Lake kariba, Environmentalist Ben Makowa has said.
Mr Makowa said that some houseboat operators and residents living along the shores of the lake were disposing of feacal matter on the lake.
He said currently there were over 1,800 Kapenta rigs without toilets each with of more than a four member crew on- board.
As a result, he noted, fishermen were using the lake to answer the call of nature.
''Each Kapenta rig has more than four crew members meaning over 7,000 fishermen operate on the lake every night and at the same time use the lake to answer the call of nature so if nothing is done quickly, the water body will soon be saturated with human faeces.
"This will in turn disturb aquatic life on the man-made lake," he said.
He added that this would have adverse effects on the aquatic life on the man-made lake.
He said if the situation was not well addressed, it would have negative effects on the quality of water in the lake.
Mr Makowa said authorities in Zambia and Zimbabwe must immediately find a lasting solution to the problem.
He said this should be done before the entire Lake was polluted by faecal matter from the Kapenta rigs and houseboats.
He said there was need to come up with regulations that would compel Kapenta rigs and houseboat operators to install portable toilets on-board their vessels.
This, he said, would allow safe disposal of faecal matter and stop pollution of the lake.
Mr Mukowa feared that Lake Kariba would be polluted to an extent where the water in the reservoir would not be fit for human and animal consumption.
He added that human faeces carried harmful micro-organisms that could easily contaminate water sources and slow down the decomposition process.
He said that although some of the Houseboats operating on the lake had toilets on- board, operators use the lake to dispose of the same faecal matter before docking.
Mr Mukowa said while Kariba town in Zimbabwe had taken measures to prevent water contamination by investing in state of the art sewer ponds, Siavonga on the Zambian side did not have such important facilities.Angry residents set on the make shift shop and destroyed the wall fence, windows, doors and some looted household goods.
A Daily Nation news crew that rushed to the scene found the residents destroying the house while the body had already been taken to Matero Level One hospital by officers from Zesco.