EMA steps up efforts to reduce use of mercury

Blessings Chidakwa, Harare Bureau
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has stepped up efforts to reduce the use of mercury by artisanal gold miners with a long term plan of eliminating as well as substituting the substance.

The World Health Organisation considers mercury as one of the top 10 chemicals of major public health concern.

Mercury is used to refine gold and is a highly poisonous element which can affect the brain, nerve and reproductive systems if inhaled as vapour. Artisanal and small-scale gold miners are the most affected by the exposure to the element which they use almost on a daily basis while separating gold from ore.

Mercury also affects aquatic life because it pollutes water and stays in water for a long time affecting fish which when consumed can affect the whole food chain.

Speaking during an awareness campaign on the dangers of mercury in Sanyati District, EMA district environmental education and publicity officer Mr Knowledge Kabesa urged the artisanal and small-scale miners to devise safer methods of using the element.

“Samples tested by the Global Mercury Project have shown that gold millers and artisanal miners in Kadoma and surrounding areas have higher levels of poisonous mercury in their blood, urine and hair,” he said.

“Therefore, we have decided to do a tour in the district urging them to use the substance in a less harmful manner, including using industrial gloves opposed to hands when separating gold from ore.”

The Global Mercury Project was implemented in 2007 and it sought ways of limiting mercury contamination in international waters from artisanal and small-scale gold miners.

Mr Kabesa said artisanal and small-scale gold miners contribute immensely to the economy hence Government has since started feasibility studies to look for sustainable and viable alternatives to mercury use.

“Considering their contribution to the economy, it is important that sustainable and viable alternatives be adopted to reduce, limit or even eliminate mercury use while at the same time maintaining or increasing gold production levels,” he said.

“It should be clear that Government will not rush to ban mercury without finding a perfect replacement. However, the country is a signatory to a convention that requires it to protect human health and the environment.”

The effects of mercury led to countries to come together and negotiate the Minamata Convention on mercury which calls for a ban on new mercury mines.

The convention also calls for the phasing-out of existing mines, control measures on air emissions and the international regulation of the informal sector for artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

Zimbabwe was one of the first signatories to the conventions in October 2013 in Japan and is among 128 countries that are part to the convention.