Small-scale farmers situated along the river accused DTZ-OZGEO and other small-scale miners of polluting the water the farmers use for irrigation.
Farmers told Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development permanent secretary, Ngoni Masoka, that their main source of water was heavily contaminated with mining chemicals and it was difficult to mix the water with agricultural chemicals.
DTZ-OZGEO is a partnership between the government and a consortium of Russian business people. They are mining gold in Penhalonga.
A local farmer who identified himself as Sanhanga said the pollution had reached alarming levels.
“As we speak about creating a National Irrigation Policy, we should also look at the pollution of rivers,” said Sanhanga.
Farmers said the Environmental Management Agency had not been doing. an official from EMA said that the water was not heavily polluted according to the regular tests they carry out at DTZ mine in Penhalonga.
“We took samples recently and the scale was normal. The aggrieved farmers must come to our offices to see that we visited the area of concern. We do not have anything to hide but we don’t work on hearsay,” said the official. He said all the mines operating along Mutare river where carrying out alluvial mining which did not use chemicals to process minerals.
Post published in: News