adminTinomuda Chakanyuka Sunday News Reporter
SAND poaching is threatening key infrastructure in and around Bulawayo, with widespread indiscriminate digging now threatening Zesa electricity pylons near Methodist Village on the periphery of the city. The sand poachers have also invaded Hyde Park Cemetery near Pelandaba high-density suburb, digging up graves. Environmental Management Agency (EMA) provincial manager for Bulawayo province Mr Decent Ndlovu confirmed the threat on Zesa infrastructure from sand poaching in the city.
Mr Ndlovu said two pits dug by sand poachers in Methodist Village were too close to the Zesa pylons, putting the structures under threat of collapse if the soil around was to loosen.
He lamented rampant sand poaching in the city which he said was reaching alarming levels and could culminate in disasters.
“If you go to Methodist Village on the western side of Pumula, there are pits dug close to Zesa pylons. The pits are so close to the pylons and our fear is that if the soil around the pylons loosens the structures may be uprooted.
“Zesa is aware of the situation and I think by now they have moved to contain it. We have not yet inspected the area towards Umguza to see if there are pits dug near Zesa infrastructure and we are working on that,” he said.
Hyde Park Cemetery in Pumula is also under threat from illegal sand extraction, with sand poachers having defaced some graves digging for pit sand.
The development at the cemetery has prompted EMA to launch night raids on sand poachers who conduct their activities during the night.
Bulawayo City Council has also responded to sand poaching at the cemetery by drawing up plans to erect a pre-cast wall around the cemetery.
The sand poachers are reportedly also stealing gravel delivered to the cemetery for grave backfilling.
Mr Ndlovu attributed the increase in sand poaching to lack of legally designated sites for sand abstraction in the city.
He urged the local authority to move with haste in setting aside legal sand sites as the first step to contain sand poaching.
“The only designated sites are in Umguza district and Bulawayo does not have its own, which could be one of the major drivers of illegal sand poaching. As long as the city does not have legally designated sites, the battle against sand poaching may be difficult to win,” he said.
Cowdray Park, Pumula, Robert Sinyoka, Methodist Village are some of the areas in and around the city that have been gravely affected by the scourge of sand poaching. Last month the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) held a media tour of several illegal sand poaching sites in the city, showing the extent to which sand poaching was costing the city the aesthetic value of its flora.
One of the sites in Methodist Village has developed 250 metres in length, about 70 metres wide and about three metres deep within a space of two weeks.
“This pit developed in just two weeks and it illustrates the extent to which these people are destroying the environment. Give them a year they will destroy everything we have,” said Mr Ndlovu.
The EMA Bulawayo provincial manager added that sand poaching was also becoming a threat to human life as pits are often left unrehabilitated, turning into deep pools during the rainy season.
Last year a nine-year-old boy from Cowdray Park drowned after he lost control of a makeshift plastic raft he was using to float in one of the unrehabilitated water filled pits in the suburb.
In 2013 another 11-year-old boy from Magwegwe North in Bulawayo drowned while swimming with friends in a pit that was left uncovered by sand poachers.
Online Reporter