Chronicle Editor
Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Matabeleland South Bureau Chief
ILLEGAL gold miners in some parts of Matabeleland South Province continue to expose villagers to health hazards through open defecation.
There are high cases of open defecation in rural areas particularly in Matabeleland with fears that the practice could derail the country’s attainment of an upper middle income status by 2030.
Open defecation is the disposal of human waste in fields, forests, bushes, open bodies of water or other open spaces.
Matabeleland South provincial water, sanitation and hygiene sub-committee chairperson, Mr Moment Malandu said there was no programme in place to fight open toileting targeting mining communities, a situation which he said created a vacuum and contributed to the challenge.
“We encourage miners to build toilets. Established miners have no problems, they build their toilets. Where we have problems is where there’s gold panning. Gold panners are highly mobile and very arrogant.
“If you talk to them about toilets, they won’t listen to what you’re saying because in most instances, they don’t know where they’ll be the following day. If they build that toilet, who will they be building it for? It’s a dilemma in all Government departments as they try to figure out how to handle gold panners,” said Mr Malandu.
He said even traditional leaders are at a loss for words because they just see the panners operating in their jurisdictions randomly.
“In the past, when someone travelled from one traditional leadership area to another, they would be given a permit but that has fallen off. People now just go where they please and start digging for gold in an area under a traditional chief without the authority of that chief,” said Mr Malandu.
He said there was no ready solution in sight to tackle open toileting although various stakeholders were constantly in consultation over the issue.
“I’m scheduled to meet the Small-scale Miners Association to hatch a plan on what we can do with regards to open defecation in gold panning areas. Perhaps if we sit down with the relevant local authorities, we may come up with a solution. And of course we have to include law enforcement agents as well because most illegal gold panners are very hostile,” said Mr Malandu.
According to the latest Zimvac report, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces have the highest rates of open defecation in the country. Binga has the highest rates in Matabeleland North province while Beitbridge has the highest rate in Matabeleland South.
The highest percentage recorded of bush toileting is 40 percent, as only 59 percent of Binga households are recorded to have toilets.
The report also noted that the proportion of households without hand-washing facilities at their toilets was more than 80 percent in all districts in the country.
The proportion of households accessing water from improved sources is 77 percent.
However, Mangwe (44.7 percent) and Kariba (32.5 percent) have high proportions of households accessing water from surface water sources.
According to the report, access to water at a national level was still a challenge with indications that villagers in most parts of the country still travel long distances to fetch water.
“Nationally, there was an increase in the proportion of households travelling distances more than 1 km to the main water source from 16 percent in 2019 to 20 percent in 2020.
“The highest proportion of households travelling distances more than 1 km was in Matabeleland South (33 percent) and lowest in Manicaland (nine percent),” reads the report. – @Yolisswa
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