BULAWAYO mayor David Coltart has said that police have failed to heed his call to intensify their patrols to curb illegal mining along rivers feeding into the city’s supply dams amid continued actions.
Coltart said he observed the illegal mining activities during a visit to Umzingwane catchment area on Wednesday last week.
In a statement, Coltart said the illegal activities had become a national emergency.
“We need Environmental Management Agency (EMA), the police and if need be, the army to stop this ruin of our nation and the utter devastation of Bulawayo catchment areas,” he said.
Coltart told Southern Eye that gold panning was one of the reasons why most supply dams of the city had seen water levels falling to 28%.
“Government has spoken about banning gold mining in all river systems, but there is no sign on the ground that this policy is being implemented. I was there yesterday,” he said.
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“I saw no sign of the police or the EMA trying to stop these miners from doing what they are doing.”
Coltart warned that Bulawayo would soon run dry if the situation was not urgently addressed.
“It is a very grave crisis that we face, and if we do not get water in our river systems, then the city faces the prospect of running out of raw water, which is a catastrophic prospect for a city of over 800 000 people. So it is an extreme crisis at present and it needs urgent action,” he said.
“Tied to that is the fact that we’ve not been building the dams that we need to. We need to urgently start work on Glassblock Dam so that we can supplement our existing sources of water.”
Meanwhile, Insiza and Mtshabezi dams hold most of the water that could service the city.
“We have insufficient pipelines, so we cannot get the water to the city, but (that is) as bad as that situation is, as we face this coming rainy season,” Coltart said.
“The reality is that our river systems have been so badly devastated by water panels that unless we have rain in excess of the average and above normal season, literally floods and cyclones, in many of our river systems, the water is not going to get to our dams.”
Umzingwane Dam was decommissioned in November last year when it fell to 2,14%, while Upper Ncema was also decommissioned earlier this month after its levels decreased to 2,03%.
Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution secretary Paul Nyoni said he would engage his counterparts in Matabeleland South over the situation.