CWA to tackle water challenges affecting mining communities

A local water rights advocacy group to tackle water challenges bedeviling some mining communities nationwide.

The Community Water Alliance will partner with the Netherlands Embassy and Water Witness International to improve water resources management and environmental protection in the mining communities of Goromonzi, Buhera, and Hwedza.The project is dubbed FAIR (Fostering Accountability Integrity and Responsibility) on Mining in Zimbabwe.
Speaking during the project inception meeting in Harare on Wednesday, Community Water Alliance national coordinator Mr Goodlife Mudzingwa detailed the numerous water challenges that mining communities are grappling with which the project intends to address.
“Some of the problems that we intend to address in collaboration with other key stakeholders that include government institutions in the mining communities include the challenge of de-watering of groundwater resources and surface water sources.
“At one time when I was in Shurugwi there were boreholes that were drilled as deep as 120 meters but could not get water owing to de-watering challenges,” revealed Mudzingwa.
The project also aims to deal with the rampant pollution caused by mining activities in the aforementioned communities.
“The other concern we would like to respond to is the physical, microbiological, and chemical contamination of water resources emanating from mining activities,” he added.
Mudzingwa allayed fears that the project wants to stop mining operations.
“The mission is not to stop mining operations but to ensure that mining is done in an environment-friendly manner that respects vital ecosystems, hydrological basins, forests, and wetlands that guarantees sustainable water security for smallholder women farmers and youths,”.
According to Community Water Alliance, as a result of the water challenges affecting the mining communities this has led to a decrease in water quantity ,water quality and the increased costs of purification.
CWA intends to work with key government ministries including the Ministry of health, environment, and agriculture, and like-minded civic society organisations. It will also collaborate with a number of Community-Based Organisations(CBOs) from Goromonzi,Buhera and Hwedza.

There is a huge concern about the rampant mining activities in the country that are causing irreparable environmental and ecological damage. Recently in Shurugwi,4 people lost their lives after the car they were travelling in plunged into a disused mining pit.