HARARE — Only three of Zimbabwe’s 22 swimming pools meet the standard dimensions required to host competitive aquatic events, Parliament has heard, highlighting the deteriorating state of the country’s sports infrastructure.
A report by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture said most municipal swimming pools were no longer suitable for competitive aquatic sport, while the Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex has remained non-operational for more than a decade.
The committee said the Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex, built for the 1995 All Africa Youth Games, has been out of service since 2015.
“The Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex was built for the 1995 All Africa Youth Games and had futuristic features that were ahead of their time and today they are still to be fully utilized.”
“The Committee heard that the aquatic centre has been non-operational since 2015 due to issues of filtration systems and tiles.”
The Zimbabwe Aquatic Union told the committee that only three pools across the country currently meet competition standards.
“The Zimbabwe Aquatic Union (ZAU) reported that only 3 pools in Harare, Mutare, and Bulawayo met the standard dimensions for competitions out of 22 in the country, and these often-faced water shortages.”
The committee also heard that year-round training opportunities remain limited because heated pools are largely unavailable in public facilities.
“The availability of heated pools for year-round training was however limited only to private school owned pools leaving out public pool facilities.”
In its recommendations, the committee called for the establishment of a national facility rehabilitation fund to support critical repairs to sports infrastructure and urged greater investment in maintaining facilities to ensure they can support athlete development and international competition.
