MATOBO Conservation Society has expressed concern at the environmental damage at How Mine and Hope Fountain Mission as a result of illegal gold panning and the illegal cutting of timber and has called for the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) to take immediate action.
PATIENCE RATAMBWA OWN CORRESPONDENT
These areas are near the Umzingwane Dam catchment area and are said to be impacting negatively on the water source, as the illegal gold panners mine on stream banks and hillsides.
Poisonous chemicals they use are washed into a tributary of Umzingwane Dam, a water source for Bulawayo.
In a letter addressed to EMA, Matobo Conservation Society chairperson Gavin Stephens appealed to the authority to do something about the environmental degradation.
“This has become an area of renewed mining activity, including rampant panning on stream beds and hillsides,” he said.
“This activity is certainly having a negative impact on the Umzingwane catchment with both stream bank destruction and the use of illegal chemicals, which are washed into the streams.
“It is showing considerable stress from the illegal cutting of timber.”
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Stephens said if the degradation was left unchecked, it would have a profound effect on Bulawayo’s water supplies, as the affected streams formed the headwaters and catchment of the Umzingwane Dam.
“In writing to you we hope that EMA will take the requisite action to apprehend the culprits, restore the environment and prevent this from continuing,” reads the letter.
Illegal gold panners are said to have continued digging for gold over the years in undesignated places despite reprimands from authorities.
Gold panners, with subtle encouragement from the government, insist panning is their only livelihood.
