Zimbabwe’s EMA Seeks Tougher Fines to Deter Corporate Water Pollution

Parliamentary Scrutiny and the Push for Heavier Fines

Weak legal penalties are failing to stop companies from polluting the country’s waterways, according to local environmental authorities. Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment, Climate and Wildlife, which is investigating unsustainable mining practices around the Deka River in Hwange, Environmental Management Authority (EMA) Environmental Protection Director Christopher Musvava warned that current financial sanctions carry no real weight for major offenders.

The fines and penalties that are obtained in terms of the current law… we have noted that it's not deterrent to be honest in terms of companies that are polluting, Musvava told legislators.

Musvava told legislators that penalties need to target corporate balance sheets directly to force a change in behavior. They are also in business. I'm sure a penalty should make meaning to their bottom line in terms of business, so that they are also serious about controlling a pollution source, he said during the committee appearance. Water contamination now drives 75.6% of all enforcement activities undertaken by the authority, making it the country’s biggest environmental challenge. He acknowledged that pollution of rivers and other water bodies remains the country’s biggest environmental challenge.

Legislative Overhaul and Targeted Enforcement Actions

To combat persistent contamination, the environmental watchdog is pushing for legislative reform via the proposed Environmental Management Amendment Bill. The major handicap there is the level of fines, and so we are trying to address it through the EMA Amendment Bill… to make sure that people become accountable, Musvava explained to the committee. While the agency has issued environmental protection orders, imposed fines, and prosecuted several companies for violating environmental regulations, current statutory limits restrict how effectively the watchdog can penalize offenders.

Companies that have faced prosecution for breaching environmental regulations include the Co-Brick Group of Companies, ZPC Hwange Power Station, Sunrise Chilota, and Zim Shoshin Electrical, among other operators accused of breaching environmental regulations. To monitor compliance among these and other operators, EMA carries out quarterly inspections and environmental audits to assess whether companies found guilty of pollution improve their compliance over time. We do operations on a quarterly basis, inspections and audits… the prosecution, inspection and environmental auditing mechanism is happening quite frequently, Musvava noted.

Scientific Monitoring Along the Deka River

Defending the authority’s findings on pollution in the Deka River, Musvava emphasized that findings were based on years of scientific monitoring rather than isolated incidents. The authority has collected monthly water samples from the river between 2021 and 2025, building what Musvava described as a comprehensive database tracking changes in water quality. The authority also conducts field tests before samples are analysed at its ISO-accredited laboratory, which he said meets both regional and international standards.

Rather than assuming the river’s entire 139-kilometre length is equally affected, EMA conducted a dedicated survey along the Deka River in June to establish how far pollution extends downstream. In addition to chemical sampling, the authority also relies on biomonitoring, using aquatic organisms such as micro-invertebrates to assess the health of river ecosystems.

Whatever you see living in that particular water… they indicate different issues because they have different pollution tolerance levels, he said.

He explained that the presence or absence of certain species enables scientists to determine both the existence and severity of pollution, making biomonitoring an important tool in assessing the ecological condition of rivers as lawmakers weigh amendments to strengthen national pollution laws.