Staff Reporter
Kwekwe District Development Coordinator Fortune Mpungu called on artisanal miners to stop activities that destroy infrastructure and the environment.
Mpungu addressing artisanal miners at a roundtable stakeholders discussion last Friday in Kwekwe said the destruction of infrastructure was self-defeating.
“We encourage miners to practice environmentally friendly mining which does not destroy the infrastructure and buildings. Instead, we should be able to plough back to the community where we are mining and help in the construction of roads, clinics, schools, and other infrastructure,” he said.
Mpungu said it was self-defeating to destroy the same infrastructure that miners are expected to be building.
Mpungu’s call come after the collapse of a classroom block at Globde and Phoenix Primary which injured pupils and left them stranded with no learning facilities.
Kwekwe City Council in the past years has been on recording bemoaning the damage caused to water pipes by the illegal miners bent on making quick money.
Environmental Management Agency EMA Kwekwe District Officer, Daniel Magombedze urged miners to have all necessary documents available before mining to protect the environment.
“We should have all necessary paperwork in place like the Environmental Impact Assessment, effluent discharge certificate, solid waste and disposal certificate, and others, in place. We should be able to follow all necessary steps so that we carry out mining that is not damaging to the environment. This can only be done when you formalize your operations,” he said.
The discussion which was a platform created for miners to meet stakeholders in the industry focused on issues of formalization among a host of issues.
Young Miners Federation Chief executive officer, Payne Kupfuwa said the discussion was important as it brought together stakeholders in the mining industry with a special hinge on formalization.
“This is a good initiative that brought the miners and mining stakeholders together so that we can get to hear the advantages of formalizations. As you could see, we also had testimonies from some young miners who managed to formalize their operations and are now reaping the rewards and contributing towards economic development as young miners in line with our government vision 2030,” he said.
