Gold mines poison Manicaland rivers
GOLD miners in Mudzi in Mashonaland East and neighbouring Nyanga in Manicaland are discharging water laced with poisonous substances, including cyanide and mercury, to rivers in the districts leading to deaths of livestock and potential life-threatening health complications for villagers, investigations have revealed.
Chinese-owned Kunyu Mining (Pvt) Ltd has been singled out as one of the worst polluters as waste from its mining operations is discharged into Nyamombe River (also known as Rwenya), which flows between Mudzi and Nyanga districts.
Investigations by The Standard working in collaboration with the Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit organisation that supports journalists in Zimbabwe and in the region to investigate issues of corruption in the public sector and bad governance, revealed that pollution of the rivers was so rampant such that neighbouring Mozambique has since been forced to make a formal complaint to Zimbabwean authorities.
Earlier investigations by this publication revealed rampant labour violations at the Kunyu Mine located about 40km from Mutoko Centre where employees were forced to work without proper personal protective equipment and several of them were dismissed without due processes after complaining about ill-treatment.
The latest findings from a month-long investigation showed that the mine’s operations in Badze have affected communities beyond Mudzi where it is located as villagers in Nyanga and Mozambique are suffering the effects of the pollution.
An employee at the mine said surrounding communities were bearing the brunt of the pollution as they were losing livestock and running out of safe drinking water sources.
“There is the issue of cyanide that flows into Nyamombe or Rwenya River between Nyanga and Mutoko,” said a Kunyu employee, who requested to remain anonymous.
“The mine is a few metres deep and is located less than 300 metres from the river.
The Rwenya River is tributary of Gairezi River, which flows into Mozambique.
“The only source of water here is the river and the villagers and their livestock rely on it.
“We have had cases including one of a woman who confronted the Chinese mine owners after losing her cow due to suspected cyanide poising.
“The Chinese refused to compensate her and it ended there.
“There are also cases of workers and members of the community, who get to suffer from mysterious diseases and the suspicion is that this is due to the poisoned water,”
Kunyu Mine employees said they were scared of the long term effects of exposure to dangerous chemicals, which they handle without personal protective equipment.
They said they were worried that storage facilities for chemicals at the mine were not properly protected.
“There is a lot of cyanide used in the mining processes and it really affects people’s health,” another employee added.
“Not only workers are affected, but even villagers in Mutoko and Nyanga are also affected as the water flowing from the tanks is allowed to flow into Nyamombe River.
“The water we drink is now dangerous. There are more than 300 people at the mine and we live in one compound within the premises.
“There are no proper ablution facilities and it is a health hazard.”
The workers supplied this publication with video evidence of contaminated water flowing into the river from the mine.
One of the workers produced video evidence of how the cyanide infested water is left to flow into the river.
Nyanga North Member of Parliament Chido Sanyatwe confirmed to The Standard that mining operations in Mutoko and Nyanga were polluting Nyangombe River and that this posed a