Private players in business and environmental organizations recently encouraged every Zimbabwean citizen to desist from activities that contaminate water and the environment.
They said this at a national consultations build-up workshop in preparation for the Stockhold+50 International Conference which will be held from 2-3 June this year in Sweden.
The Stockholm Conference lies in the 1968 proposal from Sweden that the UN holds international conferences to examine environmental problems and identify those that require international cooperation.
Speaking during a workshop in Harare, representative of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Zimbabwe Mr Tich Jena urged Zimbabweans to avoid activities that pollute water and degrade the environment.
“It’s very critical, the issue of water is a major issue, we are experiencing because people are just ploughing along the stream bank and that’s an area that we need to address critically.
“In terms of mining, artisanal mining is causing a lot of problems especially land degradation. So if we devolve to the management to the communities and give them authority and power in terms of how they manage I think this will help us to manage environment stability,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Hon Mangaliso Ndhlovu who was represented by Chief Director Environment and Climate Services Professor Prosper Matondi said the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that people need to create a healthy environment to prevent diseases.
“The COVID-19 pandemic sheds more light on this theme as it has become more apparent that a healthy environment is critical for human health and that we are responsible for protecting the environment,” he said.
The call for water preservation in Zimbabwe comes at a time when people continuously contaminate water and the environment unknowingly. Some are involved in stream bank cultivation, while others are involved in illegal mining at water reservoirs like dams.
