THE Environmental Management Agency has ordered the shutdown of two mining companies in Mazowe for operating without obtaining the requisite environmental licences and causing degradation and pollution.
This comes amid concerns from farmers in the area about the state of the Mazowe Dam, whose water level has failed to rise despite the heavy rains the country has received during the past months.
The situation has been attributed to the impact of illegal mining activities in the area, which have altered natural hydrological systems.
According to the latest statistics from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), the average national dam water level has reached 90,5 percent as of February 9, with Mazowe Dam only at 11,3 percent.
Farmers said Mazowe Dam remained low due to upstream illegal mining activities that were causing siltation and reduced inflows into the dam.
EMA environmental education and publicity manager, Mrs Amkela Sidange, said her organisation conducted a joint operation with other law enforcement agencies in Mashonaland Central Province and arrested offenders from two mines.
“An alluvial mining site was identified at Barton Farm in Bindura District, in contravention of Statutory Instrument (SI) 188 of 2024, which banned alluvial mining in Zimbabwe.
“The mining activity was also disposing waste water into a public stream in a manner likely to cause environmental pollution in contravention of Section 57(1) and (2) of the Environmental Management Act [Chapter 20:27] and storing and using hazardous substances (fuel) without a licence issued by the agency in contravention of Section 10(1) (a) of Statutory Instrument 268 of 2018,” she said.
Mrs Sidange said that at Iron Mask Farm, under Brass Mining Syndicate, they discovered that open-cast mining was being conducted on arable land without any relevant environmental licences from the agency.
“Therefore, the Brass Mining Syndicate was fined and issued an environmental protection order (EPO) to cease operations pending submission of an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) to the agency.
“The agency will not hesitate to prosecute all those found violating environmental laws to the detriment of environmental integrity,” she said.
EMA implored miners and all those in the extractive sector to operate in a sustainable way to balance economic development with environmental protection in line with National Development Strategy 2 (NDS 2) and Vision 2030.
Members of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Think Tank (ZATT) recently raised concerns, during a social media platform discussion, over the low water levels in Mazowe Dam, despite the significant rains received thus far this season.
According to Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary, Professor Obert Jiri, contributing on the same ZATT platform, said the Mazowe, Jumbo, Muroodzi situation was dire.
“I agree, the Ministry of Agriculture must take the lead, but the need (for interventions) is more than agriculture. Slowly, the river mining situation is being corrected,” he said.
“Regarding the Mazowe River, I am happy to report that EMA arrived and shut down a mine operating outside of environmental regulations.
“Our respect and thanks to all relevant Government authorities, particularly the agriculture and mines ministries and police,” said Mr Allan York, another ZATT contributor recently.
ZATT secretary-general, Mr Taruvinga Magwiroto, said the most plausible explanation for the dam not filling up was increased water abstraction upstream of the dam and the disturbances in the drainage process of water from the surrounding mountains.
“The whole catchment has been ravaged by mining and we are facing an ecological crisis as a consequence of irresponsible extractive activities.
“We are seeing the consequences of ‘externalising’ environmental costs with irresponsible miners extracting profit while leaving the local communities with the bill of silted dams and contaminated water, a scary trade off,” he believes.
Mr Magwiroto looks with nostalgia at a field day held three years back to celebrate an excellent wheat and soya bean crop that was grown using irrigation water from the Mazowe River.
“This case is happening right on my porch and I feel some personal responsibility to raise awareness and draw attention to the case so that action is taken to resolve it as soon as possible.
“Of all the places to find minerals, do you really have to mine inside rivers, using Joseph Cyril Bamford Excavators (JCBs) and other heavy equipment and discharging all those toxic chemicals…where? “We have to do better. This is the only country we have,” he said.
Another ZATT contributor who requested anonymity said rivers could change courses or get silted over time, due to an array of causes, which could include natural terrain changes and unsustainable mining and agriculture activities.-herald
