THE Environmental Management Agency (EMA) needs “teeth” to act against errant miners who are continuously violating regulations meant to protect the environment.
The concern was raised at a breakfast meeting held in Harare under the theme Growing Sustainable Mining, Nurturing our Future Environment.
Stakeholders criticised EMA for faiing to ensure implementation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles to protect the environment.
They said this had resulted in serious environmental harm through improper disposal of harmful chemicals into rivers and the detrimental effects of alluvial mining on riverbanks.
“I have got a feeling that EMA is not well capacitated in terms of the law,” said Kundai Chidamba, the managing director for T&A Drilling and Blasting.
“Because of the enforcement of the law regarding mining, alluvial mining and all the processes in mining, it [EMA] is not really pushing for that.
“In the first instance, we should not let that happen or give certificates for people to mine in the rivers at the onset.”
ESG refers to a collection of corporate performance evaluation criteria that assess the robustness of a company’s governance mechanisms and its ability to effectively manage its environmental and social impacts.
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Last week, Cabinet directed that riverbed mining be banned with immediate effect.
In 2020, government issued a similar directive.
“Which simply means we need to help them [EMA] to push for the enactment of laws which actually will empower them to stop or not to offer certificates for such kind of mining until only the clear roadmap in terms of how people are going to be mining or how a mining company is going to operate and dispose of its chemicals, recover of gold and all the due process to be followed before offering those certificates,” Chidamba said.
Centre for Natural Resource Governance director Farai Maguwu also emphasised the need to amend mining laws to empower EMA.
Maguwu said this would empower the environment regulator to hold offenders accountable.
“Some of these things are clear violations, while others need the law to be amended so that there is transparency in the company's operations.”
