Chronicle Editor
Nothando Zondo, Sunday News Reporter
A mining company in Portbury, Umzingwane District, Matabeleland South Province was recently forced to shut down due to the damage it was causing to the community and its irrigation scheme.
The mining activities of the company were blocking water from Portbury Dam from reaching pools which the community was using for irrigation and for their livestock.
For the past five years, the community of Portbury has been facing water challenges in their irrigation activities because of the mine’s operations in the area.
In an interview with Sunday News recently, Umzingwane Constituency Projects Co-ordinator, Mr Thulani Moyo said the effects of the mining activities were affecting the community and they had to take measures as the constituency leadership to solve the issue.
“In the past five consecutive years, cropping at the irrigation scheme has been disrupted, and yields have been reduced greatly due to insufficient water caused by the disruption from the mining company engaging in alluvial mining. This affected more than 80 households, that relied on the irrigation scheme to supplement their livelihood,” he said.
Mr Moyo said there have been four mining companies so far that have come to conduct alluvial mining along the Umzingwane River, both upstream and downstream of the irrigation scheme.
Mr Moyo said the first two companies did well, cleaning up the river and paving the way for water to pass through.
“However, when the rains came, more siltation occurred. We tried to engage the mining company, but our pleas fell on deaf ears. Instead, they promised to drill boreholes for the community, but nothing materialised,” he said.
In order to save the irrigation scheme, farmers hired an excavator from the Rural District Council (RDC) to de-silt the dam and rehabilitate the irrigation scheme’s water source.
Mr Moyo said that was not enough and recently the company held a meeting with the community and promised to rehabilitate the river by closing pits and shafts but they did the opposite instead.
“The company failed to abide by its promises to rehabilitate the river, instead it engaged in mining activities and blocked the river flow from the previously paved way that was feeding the pools used for irrigation. By June this year, there was no water in the irrigation pools, leading to a delay in planting,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the farmers were on the verge of giving up on the winter wheat crops they had planted when the constituency legislator, Brigadier-General (Rtd) Levi Mayihlome, approached the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), District Development Co-ordinator (DDC) and Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services (formerly Agritex) and together they confronted the mining company.
The district’s Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services officer, Mr Bhekilizwe Ncube, confirmed that they had received such a directive and took action upon it.
“We received information that farmers were facing challenges caused by the mining activities of some companies, and we confronted them about the effects their operations were having on the community.
“The company was subsequently forced to close leading to the opening of the dam that allowed water to flow down the river filling the irrigation pools. The irrigation pools are now full, although they are shallower than before due to siltation caused by the mining operations,” said Mr Ncube.
When one of the farmers from the irrigation scheme was asked how she felt about the current availability of water in the irrigation pool, she said: “We now have enough water to last us until the next season, so planting activities have resumed and we’re irrigating every day.”
She thanked the leadership for paying heed to the needs of the communities.
Online Reporter