Impacts of waste management practices on water resources in Harare

Abstract: Poor municipal solid waste (MSW) management practices impact negatively on freshwater availability in terms of both quality and quantity. A review on the MSW practices currently being practiced and their impacts on water resources management in Harare was car-ried out to give recommendations towards sustainable MSW management and reduce the pollu-tion of water bodies. There is urgent need for the development and implementation of a local level integrated MSW management plan tapping from the national plan that was pronounced in 2014. Such a plan should incorporate material and energy recovery with the best option combin-ing anaerobic digestion of biodegradable MSW and incineration of the non-biodegradable MSW fraction. Legislative reforms to enforce source separation, the prohibition of dumbing waste at dumpsites together with the landfilling of biodegradable waste need to be urgently institutional-ized