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Dire Lack Of Clean Water Exposes Mine Workers To Health Hazards

Sewage waste drying up at a doorstep...Burst sewage systems run through houses at Vubachikwe mine. Image by Lynnia Ngwenya


A health hazard is looming at Vubachikwe Mine in Gwanda, where mine workers and residents have gone for months without running water, a situation which is a ticking time bomb for diseases like Cholera and Typhoid.

BY LYNNIA NGWENYA | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | MAR 30, 2023


GWANDA (The Citizen Bulletin) — A 37-year-old mother of four, Jane Dube*, is troubled about a broken sewer line that cuts across her homestead at Vubachikwe mine, in Gwanda, causing an overflow of sewage spilling over onto her property.

Dube helplessly witnesses sewage bursts flowing inside her house situated on a slope and feels her family is not safe.


“When the sewer bursts in my absence, l find my children walking and playing on the waste.”
Jane Dube*, a concerned mother of four


One mine worker and a resident, Bongani Sibanda*, concurs that the sewer waste flows through their outdoor cooking areas and they risk contracting cholera.

“How can we not die of cholera living in this situation?” Sibanda poses a question and answers himself  saying “there's no way we can survive.”

Dube, just like dozens of residents at Vubachikwe mine, has been running her household without water supply for the past four months.

Due to water shortages, Dube says she uses little left over water from bathing to flush away waste from her toilet, worsening the sewer leakage.

“I think these sewer systems run smoothly in the presence of water,” says Dube.

Moses Ncube*, 31, a mine employee and a resident at the mine, says people have abandoned using public toilets and opt for the bush.

He says that toilets are no longer user friendly, as they are extremely dirty and have a bad smell which attracts from a distance.


“People are now opting for the bush, it is a better option, even though we know that the end result is an outbreak of diseases.”
Moses Ncube*


The Citizen Bulletin gathered that, in November 2022, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) cut water supply at the mine for two weeks due to debts. It was after the mine had ceased operations, following a violent dispute with workers. The authority then restored supply.

However, due to the shortage of pipes as alleged by the mine management, water supply is now directed only to the tanks.

Residents are now fetching water from three tanks that are one hundred to six hundred meters away, varying with the location of houses.

Water tanks and washed clothes hanging on the fence...Vubachikwe residents are now getting water from these tanks. Image by Lynnia Ngwenya


Ward 21 Councilor, Tellus Matemai,  says water shortage experienced at the mine has resulted in the Gwanda Rural District Council providing a water bowser for residents to access clean drinking water.

“We saw it improper for households to run without clean drinking water”, says Matemai.

He adds that the water situation at Vubachikwe is a hindrance to local projects awaiting progress.

“We wish to start a fish project, but the establishment is difficult without enough water,” Matemai says.


Vubachikwe Mine spokesperson, Robert Mukondiwa confirms the sewer bursts and water supply cuts, but blames workers for holding an illegal strike that damaged key machinery, like electricity transformers and water pipes.


“Residents will not tell you about the damage they did and still do to the transformers, water and sewer pipes,” says Mukondiwa.


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“As we speak there is no supply to the houses because there are pipes missing, criminals responsible for vandalism have to be arrested first before resuming normal household supplies.”

Another Vubachikwe’s residential area, Bar Twenty, is facing a zero water supply. The mine issued another statement in November 2022, uttering that the unavailability of water at Bar 20 is due to the vandalism of electricity transformers.

The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare declared through a Certificate of Settlement issued on the 28th of November, that the strike at Vubachikwe was illegal.

“The matter has been amicably resolved from the tribunal as the parties have agreed that the strike was illegal and be stopped with immediate effect,” remarks the certificate.


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