Local environmental watchdog has warned that weak penalties are failing to deter companies from polluting the country's waterways with water contamination now accounting for more than three-quarters of its enforcement work.
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 said existing fines were too low to influence corporate behaviour.
"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.
He said environmental sanctions should have a meaningful financial impact on offenders.
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"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.
Musvava said EMA had issued environmental protection orders, imposed fines and prosecuted several companies for violating environmental regulations.
However, he acknowledged that pollution of rivers and other water bodies remains the country's biggest environmental challenge.
According to EMA, water pollution now accounts for 75.6% of all its enforcement activities, prompting the authority to push for stiffer penalties under 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," he said.
Companies that have faced prosecution include Co-Brick Group of Companies, ZPC Hwange Power Station, Sunrise Chilota and Zim Shoshin Electrical, among other operators accused of breaching environmental regulations.
Musvava told the committee that 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," he said.
He also defended the authority's findings on pollution in the Deka River saying they were based on years of scientific monitoring rather than isolated incidents.
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EMA 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.
To better understand the extent of contamination, EMA conducted a dedicated survey along the Deka River in June to establish how far pollution extends downstream, rather than assuming the river's entire 139-kilometre length is equally affected.
Musvava said 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.
