The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has called on members of the public not to buy or be allocated residential and industrial stands on wetlands without Environmental and Social Impact Assessment following continued invasion of these protected areas in some areas of the country.
Local authorities have been encouraged to fence wetlands especially in urban areas where there is unsanctioned use of these areas which has led to issuing of fines to those breaking set laws. A wetland is an area that is seasonally or permanently covered by water and is usually dominated by trees and is not suitable for human activity.
However, over the years, there has been an outcry by the agency as construction and other undesignated land uses have been carried out on wetlands disrupting the ecosystem. EMA environmental education and publicity manager Mrs Amukela Sidange raised these concerns while encouraging councils to be vigilant as they deal with wet lands and desist from allocating them to the public.
“EMA is calling on local authorities as owners of land to judiciously ring fence wetland areas through constructive land use plans and water tight local by-laws. The same should religiously avoid allocation of land in wetlands for any human activity and for the public not to accept stands in wetlands when allocated to them and not to implement any project without an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) certificate from the Agency,” she said.
ESIA is an assessment that identifies potential negative impacts of a project on the environment and the social impact and suggests mitigation measures to reduce the impacts. Mrs Sidange said land invasions and illegal allocation of land remains a challenge especially in the urban wetlands resulting in over 248 offences recorded and taken through relevant litigation processes by the Agency. She, however, said the Agency was able to assist people with sustainable use of wetlands also saying having their land assessed is not a greenlight to use wetlands.
“The Agency would like to set the record straight that doing an ESIA does not mean a land owner has been given a go ahead to implement a project but it’s a policy procedure meant to ensure that impacts of an intended project are assessed to inform fair decision making. The Agency is available to assist in verifying ecological sensitivity of the land allocated and guiding sustainable project development through the ESIA principle,” said Mrs Sidange.
Mrs Amukela Sidange
She said EMA has recorded various achievements regarding wet lands including, successful development of a strong national wetland management framework through the publication and launching of the National Wetlands Management Policy and National Wetlands Management Guidelines.
“The recent gazetting through General Notice 2119 of 2022, of some pieces of wetlands as Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESIAs) in Harare, Epworth, Ruwa and Chitungwiza covering about 20 751.21hectares of wetland area further strengthened wetland protection in Zimbabwe. Thus riding on the wave of the fresh policy strengthening, wetland restoration was increased through the use of physical protection, legal and traditional approaches, and scoring a resounding achievement of 252 855.15 hectares put under sustainable management against a set target of 100 000 hectares,” she said.
She said some of the wetlands that were put under sustainable management include but not limited to Guga in Lupane, Matabeleland North, Mpompini and Mazvide in Insiza, Matabeleland South and Nyamara in Chikomba Mashonaland East, among other several high impact wetland protection projects implemented in 2022.
The Agency said to that end, there is an increased appreciation of the importance of wetlands in the country as a result of the new policy framework and its implementation.
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