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- Sand poachers target graveyards, residential areas
- Attack authorities, law enforcement
- Nationwide disease outbreak looms
By Kundai Marunya
The coming of the rainy season has left residents exposed to massive environmental and health hazards.
Already, Harare and Bulawayo have recorded a high rate of diarhoea cases which surged with the coming of the wet season. Experts are pointing to an inevitable outbreak of cholera and typhoid if environmental hazards are not addressed.
A walk through Harare’s Mbare high-density suburb, the intercity bus terminus and the vegetable market points to an inevitable disease outbreak.
Garbage remains uncollected while residents and vegetable traders alike illegally dispose refuse on road sides.
Sewer flows in many spaces, some close to makeshift restaurants and residential homes. Mbare stands as just one example of the deplorable state of affairs found in many residential and market spaces across the country.
Residents and travellers alike are living in fear of a nationwide outbreak of waterborne diseases since Mbare connects the whole of Zimbabwe through a viable market and bus terminus.
“City of Harare does not collect refuse. Many residents and traders end up just dumping waste by the roadside in the hope that the council will eventually clear the refuse,” said Mbare resident Taurai Maringe.
“The rubbish keeps on piling up, and with rains coming, soaking all the waste, we are afraid of a cholera outbreak.”
The City of Harare has failed to fix these perennial problems, citing incapacitation. Many residents have moved to pay private companies and individuals for refuse collection, a service they would have already paid for to City of Harare.
Meanwhile, many areas around the capital city have been exposed to gullying as a result of illegal pit sand mining.
Sand mining is the process of extracting sand from an open pit, river beds, stream or river bank.
The extracted sand can be used in construction and in the manufacturing of cement.
As populations grow and rates of urbanisation increase, demand for sand needed in construction has also gone up. These high levels of demand for the resource have often led to the unsustainable sand mining processes.
Illegal traders operate mostly in areas that are currently developing, notably Hopley, Epworth, Mabvuku, Eastview and Glenview.
As a result of rains, most of the exploited pits that are left uncovered have filled up with water, turning into breeding grounds for mosquitos that transmit malaria.
This is likely going to worsen the disease’s already high death toll recorded during the year.
Statistics published earlier in the year indicate that over 100 people died due to Malaria, a mediaeval disease that is easily prevented in many countries.
“The malaria death toll has increased and as we speak it’s now 152. We are in a malaria season in Zimbabwe but the country had focused more on the fight against Covid-19,” said the then Minister of Health and Child Care Obadiah Moyo.
The reports also indicated that more than 135 000 people were infected.
The open pits also expose people, especially children, to other dangers like drowning, something that often happens during the rainy season.
“Illegal sand mining is flourishing in many parts of Harare province as the public opt to buy cheaper sand from these unregistered operators,” said Batsirai Sibanda, an environment officer at the Environment Management Agency.
“Unfortunately, this has come at a cost to the environment and the surrounding community. For instance, when they dig pits for sand, these pits are left uncovered posing danger to livestock and humans.
“Some illegal sand miners are now digging in residential areas and in some cases in graveyards, others have gone to the extent of digging on dam walls, which is catastrophic.”
Recent reports indicate that graves at Zinyengere graveyard in Epworth have been invaded by sand poachers with remains being tossed into a nearby dam.
“It is a sorry state. Graves have been opened by these sand poachers and some of the remains are being thrown into the nearby dam. The dam happens to be the source of water for drinking and other domestic use for this community,” said Douglas Utete, secretary for Zinyengere Development Association (ZDA).
“More than 30 graves were tempered with by sand poachers in illegal sand extraction. The challenge is people are just allocating themselves stands, and this is fuelling rampant sand poaching activities in the area.”
Authorities in Epworth have failed to control the mining with perpetrators allegedly fighting law enforcement.
“The sand poachers have become a menace. They randomly dig pits and are a law unto themselves. They attack anyone who tries to stop them, even the police if they are not armed,” said Epworth Local Board’s town secretary Dr Wilton Mhanda.
The massive illegal sand mining has resulted in EMA closely monitoring poachers.
“We teamed up with other law enforcement agencies such as ZRP and municipal police to conduct raids in areas such as Mabvuku, Eyestone, Retreat farm, Dhabhuka, Rockview, Solomio, Chitungwiza, Arlington, Ingwe farm, Budiriro and Rainham,” said Sibanda.
“This year alone 282 inspections were conducted in Harare province which resulted in 196 tickets being issued to both illegal sand miners and illegal sand transporters, subsequently 20 Environmental Protection Orders were served to these environmental offenders. The Agency continues to closely monitor these hotspot areas.”
As a long term solution EMA, however, recommends local authorities to designate more sites for sand extraction, while communities should be empowered to monitor the extraction activities and report to authorities.
The organisation also said sand miners should organise themselves into groups and work on registered sites. The extraction of sand is protected by the Environmental Management Act (Cap 20:27) as read with Statutory Instrument 7 of 2007, which states that commercial sand and clay excavations are done after the issuance of a licence by EMA, in consultation with the local authority.
“An Environmental Management Plan (EMP) is then submitted to the Agency by the sand miner. In the plan, the operator highlights the mitigating measures they will put in place for public safety and to ensure that their activities will cause minimum damage to the environment and in an economically viable and socially acceptable manner,” said Sibanda.
“Such measures include fencing off areas with open pits and reclaiming all disused pits for proper rehabilitation of degraded sites.” Nhau/Indaba
