The successful restoration of the Monavale Vlei wetland in Zimbabwe

Since 2001, a small wetland restoration project in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare, has been protecting water sources and biodiversity. On the 10th of October, Mongabay, an American conservation news portal, reported that thanks to the efforts of local organisations, the wetland area remains a provider of many ecosystem services, including water storage, groundwater recharge and water purification. According to Dorothy Wakeling, the programme manager for the wetland, the initiative potentially provides a model for the restoration and protection of all of the wetlands upstream of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city.  

The wetland in question is the Monavale Vlei, a peri-urban wetland within the city of Harare, called Monavale Vlei, is one of Zimbabwe’s seven Ramsar Sites, a list of wetlands of international importance. The Ramsar Convention , adopted by 172 countries worldwide is an intergovernmental Treaty – named after the Iranian city of Ramsar where the convention was adopted in 1975 - that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

The Monavale Vlei wetland forms part of a network of wetlands in the Manyame catchment area, which is the primary source of water for the city of Harare. The catchment area’s streams and rivers flow down into Harare’s main water supply dam, Lake Chivero, while replenishing groundwater sources for the city. Harare’s water supply system dates to the 1960’s and currently produces just over 700 000 m³ of water a day. However, this supply currently only meets some 40% of demand. The city’s sources are limited, and water levels of the supply dam remain low, with a historically severe drought being experienced currently. Similar droughts in the past have led to a large proportion of the city’s population turning to the drilling of private boreholes.

It is in this context that the ecosystem services provided by the wetlands play an important role as ‘green infrastructure’ for the city. Many challenges currently threaten the survival of the city’s wetlands, as the city’s population increases, and the need for more housing grows. Over the years, the city’s water tables have been falling, as Harare extracts groundwater faster than the aquifers are replenished to meet the demands of its growing population.

According to the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), which falls under Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, the main drivers of wetland degradation in Zimbabwe are governance issues, pollution by untreated effluent, wetland cultivation and ongoing projects such as construction and mining. In a national wetland audit carried out between 2014-2019, 5 of the 7 Ramsar sites were covered, including the Monavale Vlei wetland. The audit report (2021) concludes that government will fail to achieve the water quality targets within SDG 6.3 if the issue of pollution of wetlands in Zimbabwe is not addressed. Furthermore, the audit notes that reaching target SDG 6.6. on the protection of water related ecosystems is currently not on track.   

Local communities living adjacent to the wetland originally organised themselves by establishing the Monavale Residents' Environmental Action Group, which developed into the Conservation Society of Monavale (COSMO) Trust in 2005 and has worked since that time to prevent the degradation of the Monavale Vlei. Throughout the years, Monavale has been subjected to a variety of threats such as construction developments, dumping of waste, fires, illegal farming, invasive plants, informal agricultural practices and loss of biodiversity. 

Since 2009, COSMO Trust has been awarded several UN grants and funding to restore parts of the wetlands, to advocate with the local and international authorities for the legislative protection of the wetlands, and to engage the scientific community in conducting research on the wetlands. This support has enabled the Trust to restore Monavale Vlei to an almost pristine wetland state, also enabling enrivonmental training and awareness projects.

The Zimbabwe Herald reports that a real estate company (West Properties Holdings Limited) has set aside $1M to restore and upgrade the wetland into a nature park. The company secured an environmental impact assessment certificate in 2015 and is currently still waiting for the green light of the Harare City Council to start this work.