By Own Correspondent- Perennial water shortages in Gokwe North has been attributed to the destruction of wetlands.

A senior official has revealed that out of Gokwe North’s 11 wetlands, at least 7 have been completely depleted.

Gokwe North district environmental officer, Allan Machenjedze said this while speaking on the sidelines of the World Water Day commemorations recently.

He said:

Out of the 11 wetlands in the district, only four are flourishing as a result of good wetland management practices.

The depleted ones were because of poor wetland management practices emanating from human activities including farming on wetlands, streambank cultivation as well as other developmental projects on wetlands.

However, the remaining, owing to the observance of good wetland management practices which include the indigenous knowledge system (chivanhu), wetlands such as Dewe in ward 25 copper queen area, where no modern material is allowed to harvest the water, have remained undisturbed.-Newsday