Ayesha Nyanzunda
The Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife has embarked on a program to rehabilitate the Mazoe River.
The ministry is working in partnership with engineers from the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, Zimbabwe National Water Authority, and the Zvataida Rural District Council to restore the river’s natural functions, which have been degraded by human activity, particularly alluvial gold mining.
According to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana, yesterday a district assessment team visited part of the Mazoe River in wards 6 and 7.
“What they saw vindicates government policy to ban alluvial gold mining. Four companies, including some owned by some foreigners, have now been stopped from working the site, and heavy machinery like motorized excavators and washing plants has been removed from the river bed,” said Mangwana in a pot on X.
In Ward 7, two Chinese companies, Jiayun Investment and Ying Can Pvt Ltd, were ticketed and ordered to vacate. About 4 hectares of the river were affected by the mining activity.
At Kapondoro Village in Ward 6, Mugodhi Investment, which was operating on the riverbed, was issued with tickets and was given an order by the Environment Management Agency to vacate the site. A total of 6 hectares were affected.
In August this year, the government banned riverbed alluvial mining to protect the environment.
Alluvial mining is the process of extracting sand and gravel from the bed of a river or stream