Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has intensified a countrywide enforcement blitz to enhance compliance in areas where sand poaching, land pollution, illegal mining, veld fires, and poor waste management is rife.

The agency’s environmental education and publicity manager, Ms Amkela Sidange, said the target was to impress on best practices to protect the environment from degradation especially due to illegal activities.

She said sand poaching is a major environmental concern especially around and within major urban areas across the country.

“We are conducting regular raids at sand poaching and sand vending hotspots where we have issued 19 tickets to offenders.

“In addition, 17 Environmental Protection Orders were issued to prohibit sand vending,” said Ms Sidange.

She called on local authorities to designate sand abstraction sites which they should manage.

The official said local authorities should ensure sand abstraction is done in a regulated manner from registered sites to prevent poaching and harm the environment.

Ms Sidange said the agency was concerned with an upsurge in land degradation linked to illegal mining.

“A recent survey done by the Agency suggests that a total of 11 163 ha of land and a stretch of 1 555km of riverine ecosystems have been degraded countrywide due to illegal mining activities. The survey also identified degraded mining hotspot areas to enhance environment reporting, decision making, and regulation purposes,” she said.

As part of the blitz, she said EMA has lined up several regulatory operations targeting illegal mining activities and registered miners who are not complying with environmental regulations.

According to Ms Sidange, some of the activities are already underway in Mashonaland West, East and Central, Midlands, and Matabeleland South.

She said so far the agency had completed 1461 mining-related inspections and fined 84 offenders for environmental law violations.

“An Environmental protection Order remains a critical statutory document in the protection of the environment, and once served, a defaulter is expected to address identified environmental concerns.

“We will only lift the order when all recommended abatement measures are in place in line with our expectations,” she said.

Ms Sidange said EMA was rolling out education and awareness programmes in selected hotspot areas, to impress on environmental stewardship among communities for sustainable management of the natural capital.

She said the protection of the environment should be every Zimbabwean’s responsibility.

The official commended Government for weighing in on the need to maintain sanity in the mining sector.