Tobacco farmers pollute rivers
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
16.01.13
by Christopher Mahove
The discharge of pesticides into the country’s water sources by tobacco
farmers is posing a danger to aquatic life and villagers, according to the
Environmental Management Agency. The EMA Environmental Quality Manager,
Silvia Yomisi, said fish deaths had been reported in the Mazowe area and the
EMA organic laboratory was currently testing water to determine the level of
contamination.
Yomisi was speaking during the EMA Laboratory Accreditation Certificate
handover ceremony in Harare recently. She would not disclose how widespread
the problem was and what measures were being taken to arrest the crisis.
The EMA laboratory, which was established in 2007, received the ISO
International Electro-Technical Standards 1702 five certification, which
will see the results from the laboratory being accepted globally.
EMA Board chairperson, Sheunesu Mpepereki, said Zimbabwe was moving from
speculation to fact regarding substances that were endangering the
environment.
“It is about moving from qualitative to quantitative descriptions. We must
measure exactly how much substances are endangering the environment. It has
been a long road but we are happy now that our capacity to measure
environmental pollutants is now matching world standards,” he said.
He said while EMA fully supported the exploitation of mineral wealth in the
country and commercial farming, it expected people to do it in a manner that
would not harm the environment. ‘We are not out to make life difficult but
we are preventing you from making us extinct,” he said.
The laboratory currently has 40, 000 chemicals for analysis for water
sources scattered across the country, including boreholes, rivers and
streams.
“This is so that we can trace back pollution to its source, especially in
rural areas where people are unsuspecting. They need to be protected, they
need to have confidence in their water,” said EMA Director General, Mutsa
Chasi.
She said tests made so far had indicated there was a heavy metal
contamination in the country’s underground water.
The EMAL becomes only the second environmental laboratory to be accredited
by SADCAS.