Good afternoon. The suspension of five Chinese-owned gold mining companies in Manica province for polluting watercourses (see below) is a step in the right direction in a province that has suffered some of the worst environmental damage from the mining industry in Mozambique, at least to its water supply. The Chicamba reservoir serves Chimoio, the provincial capital and largest city in Manica, but sometimes its waters turn brown with mining sludge from the alluvial mining practised in rivers and streams. Beyond turning water dirty, the suspended companies are accused of poisoning the water and causing the deaths of cattle and aquatic life.
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Tom Gould
But while mining companies are a prominent culprit, most of the water pollution can be attributed to the small-scale and unlicensed miners who pan for gold in the rivers and streams in their thousands. As well as polluting water, the miners also churn up and destroy farmland in their search for gold. Reforming their activities and curbing environmental damage, as President Daniel Chapo has promised to do, looks like the fairest solution: it is not as though the miners have alternative work to do.
