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With the COP15 Ramsar Convention set to take place in Victoria Falls from July 23 to 31, Zimbabwe’s credibility on wetland conservation is once again under scrutiny — and at the center of that scrutiny stands Longcheng Plaza, a sprawling commercial complex built on a protected wetland in Harare.
Constructed in 2013 along the Harare-Bulawayo highway, Longcheng Plaza has long been criticized as a symbol of environmental impunity. Despite being developed on a gazetted wetland without proper environmental certification, the mall was completed without facing any significant legal consequences. The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) acknowledged at the time that the project was in violation of environmental laws, but no penalties were imposed. The developers claimed due process was followed, but environmentalists have consistently cited the project as one of the most visible examples of weak regulatory enforcement.
This unresolved controversy is resurfacing just as Zimbabwe prepares to host global delegates for the Ramsar conference — a platform dedicated to the preservation of wetlands. In Parliament this week, Harare East MP Kiven Mutimbanyoka reignited debate around the country’s diminishing wetlands, citing Longcheng Plaza as a particularly egregious case of environmental degradation.
In his address, Mutimbanyoka called for an immediate halt to land allocations in wetland areas and questioned why illegal developments like Longcheng were allowed to proceed with impunity. He described the plaza as a case that set a troubling precedent, suggesting that even protected ecosystems could be sacrificed for commercial interests.
He pointed out that Zimbabwe, despite being a signatory to international treaties and having its own constitutional provisions on environmental protection, has allowed widespread degradation of wetlands. Harare alone has 47 gazetted wetlands, including Ramsar-recognized sites like Lake Chivero, Cleveland Dam, and Monavale Vlei — but less than 5% of these areas remain intact. The rest have either been built over or degraded beyond recognition.
Mutimbanyoka warned that the consequences of such destruction extend far beyond the environment. He cited a rise in public health emergencies, such as the over 10,000 cases of cholera and typhoid reported in 2022, and a marked increase in urban flooding, with more than 50 flood incidents recorded in 2023. The city’s water crisis has also worsened, with Lake Chivero — Harare’s main water source — experiencing a 30% decline in water levels over the past decade, partly due to the loss of wetlands that naturally regulate groundwater recharge.
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He added that the failure of authorities to enforce existing environmental laws had exposed a deeper governance issue. Urban municipalities, he said, have often played an active role in degrading wetlands by approving questionable developments and ignoring EMA directives. The EMA itself, he noted, has repeatedly failed to act on its own findings — a claim supported by the Auditor-General’s 2022 report, which found numerous cases of non-compliance going unpunished.
Environmental groups have long voiced concern over the integrity of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), suggesting that the process is often manipulated to favor development over conservation. Calls have been made for EMA to take full responsibility for conducting EIAs independently to prevent collusion and ensure greater accountability.
Although Zimbabwe introduced a National Wetlands Policy in 2022 and has legal frameworks in place through the Environmental Management Act, implementation remains weak. A recent stakeholder dialogue held in June 2025 concluded that the current laws are failing to offer adequate protection and must be urgently strengthened.
In 2018, Harare Wetlands Trust coordinator Julia Pierini remarked that the political will to protect the environment was largely missing. Years later, her assessment appears to remain valid, as Longcheng Plaza continues to operate in defiance of Zimbabwe’s stated environmental commitments — and as the world prepares to descend on Victoria Falls to discuss the very ecosystems the country has struggled to protect.
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