Riverside communities along the Manyame have spent the past year documenting what they describe as an escalating sand poaching crisis, as unlicensed operators strip riverbanks to feed Harare's construction boom, accelerating erosion that is now swallowing farmland.

Environmental groups estimate that dozens of unregistered extraction points now operate along a single stretch of the river, often at night, with trucks moving sand to building sites across the capital where demand has outpaced the supply from licensed quarries.

Local councillors say enforcement is hampered by under-resourced monitoring teams and, in some cases, alleged collusion between operators and local officials — allegations authorities have denied.

"The river is getting wider every rainy season because there's nothing left to hold the banks together," said one farmer whose field has lost several metres to erosion in the past two years alone.