Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The government has deployed members of the Zimbabwe National Army, Zimbabwe Republic Police, and other security forces across the country to protect rivers and other important natural areas that have been harmed by gold smuggling syndicates.
Officials are also starting to seize equipment used in illegal mining operations that damage the environment.
In November 2024, the government passed a law, Statutory Instrument 188 of 2024, to ban mining in riverbeds.
Pfungwa Kunaka, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, confirmed the deployment to The Independent but did not say what would happen to the seized equipment. Said Kunaka:
Arms of the State such as the police and the army and other security forces have been deployed to enforce the Statutory Instrument.
We have operations where some of the equipment has been confiscated and being kept at some known place so that they do not keep mining.
Government took a bold move to ban alluvial mining following serious concerns over environmental degradation and damage to rivers, as well as leakage of the minerals.
The effect of the ban in terms of the statutory instrument is that mining must be undertaken by registered miners.
Thousands of people in eastern Zimbabwe are without access to clean water due to riverbed mining, which has contaminated water sources with toxic chemicals, leading to widespread health concerns.
James Mupfumi, director of the Centre for Research and Development (CRD), estimates that around 85,000 people in Chimanimani and Mutasa districts are being exposed to polluted water and the risk of disease.
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