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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has deployed rangers on a full-time basis at its water catchment areas to safeguard the city’s supply dams from being contaminated by toxic chemicals such as cyanide and mercury, following an upsurge in illegal gold panning activities.

However, so far, the city’s water is still safe from contamination.

Between January and May, council rangers apprehended 229 panners and handed them over to the police.

Popularly known as “omakorokoza”, the gold panners have ramped up their illegal activity in the city’s catchment areas.

They use dangerous chemicals like mercury and cyanide thereby posing a serious threat to Bulawayo’s water supplies. The panners are constantly involved in running battles with council rangers.

According to scientific studies, mercury is detrimental to human health as exposure can lead to skin disease, infertility and birth defects.

When inhaled, the chemical can also cause lung cancer.

Mercury is used for gold amalgamation in artisanal mining.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states: “People exposed to a small amount of cyanide by breathing it, absorbing it through their skin, or eating foods that contain it may have some or all of the following signs and symptoms within minutes; dizziness, headache, nausea and vomiting, rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, restlessness and weakness.”

The chemicals pose a threat to the health of animals, humans and aquatic life.

Bulawayo’s supply dams are Umzingwane, Mtshabezi, Inyankuni, Insiza, Upper Ncema and Lower Ncema, all in Matabeleland South.
Matabeleland South Province is known for numerous gold deposits which lure people from across the country.

Gold panning activities are also causing siltation, an accumulation of fine soil that is blamed for diminishing water supplies in the dams that serve the city.

A Chronicle news crew visited the Upper Ncema, Lower Ncema and Inyankuni areas and observed that rampant alluvial gold panning activities take place on the river beds and banks of the Umzingwane and Mtshabezi Dams.

A large proportion of the catchment area for Bulawayo’s water supply dams falls within this area. Major dams such as Umzingwane, Upper Ncema, Lower Ncema, Inyankuni and Mtshabezi are under threat due to a spike in illegal gold panning.

The local community, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) and BCC are the worst affected by these illegal gold panning activities, which also cause land degradation.

BCC corporate communications officer, Ms Bongiwe Ngwenya said the worst affected catchment areas are Ncema, Inyankuni and Umzingwane dams because of their alluvial gold deposits.

Ms Ngwenya said rangers and police are struggling to effectively conduct routine patrols in the affected areas due to inadequate resources.

“So far, Bulawayo water is safe from contamination because we have deployed rangers at our catchment areas where illegal gold activities are rampant. Although we have routine patrols at our water catchment areas, the main challenge is the issue of human resources and vehicles,” said Ms Ngwenya.

“Furthermore, the illegal gold panners are dangerous and armed and at times they would want to overrun the rangers until minimum force is used to deal with them.”

Ms Ngwenya said between January and May, 229 illegal gold panners were arrested and 333 tools, which include crowbars, detectors and shovels, were recovered.

The Environmental Management Agency (Ema)’s provincial manager for Matabeleland South Mr Decent Ndlovu said gold panning processes on the river banks, beds and the surrounding areas is likely to discharge huge amounts of loose silt and heavy metals into the river system.

“As Ema we are extremely worried about these illegal gold mining activities happening on the river banks and water catchment areas. Gold panning has devastating impacts on the environment such as deforestation as they burn bushes and use of harmful chemicals like mercury and cyanide,” he said.

“These environmental impacts are a result of destructive mining, wasteful mineral extraction and processing practices and techniques used by the illegal gold panners.”

Mr Ndlovu said the mercury used by panners is discharged into ecosystems in an abusive manner.

“Eventually these contaminations are washed into the dams, increasing the risk of siltation, flooding and drying up of water reservoirs. Land degradation also results in the loss of aesthetic value of the landscape as mining activities leave open pits and mounds of sand,” he said.

Zinwa corporate communications and marketing manager Mrs Marjorie Munyonga said once the water is contaminated with cyanide or mercury, it means more costs for Zinwa and BCC to treat it.

“Chemicals such as cyanide and mercury affect humans and farming practices. If the water is supposed to be used for drinking, it means as Zinwa or local authorities we need more chemicals to treat that water so that it meets the required standards,” said Mrs Munyonga without stating the costs. — @mashnets.