Chinese mine neighbours demand site shutdown

After futile efforts to dialogue with city fathers over hazards from a quarry located close to a residential area, villagers in Blantyre have now threatened to take “unspecified action” against the mining company.

“We are frustrated with the [Blantyre City] council’s negligence and communities will be forced to take unspecified action,” lamented village head Mwachande in Machinjiri Township.

Speaking in agreement, village head Kandeya said over 300 houses have either partially collapsed or have developed cracks due to rock-blasting.

“We have been to the council several times but to no avail. The worrying aspect is that even our subjects suspect we are personally benefiting from the mine because our concerns seem to be hitting a snag.”

At the centre of the conflict is Mzedi Quarry situated near Mapanga Light Industrial Area and operated by Sino Sky Industries Limited, whose operations villagers and other commercial establishments around the area want to completely halt “because they are deleterious”.

The communities, which include Moto, Sadik, Kampani, Mphepo, Wilson, Mphonyiwa, Nsogoja and Mapira villages under Traditional Authority Machinjiri, have been complaining about the quarry’s heavy noise, air pollution, flying rocks, environmental changes and ground vibrations that spring up from rock-blasting activities.

They say they are now fed up with the blasting activities which have been damaging their structures through the emergence of cracks on the walls.

Further, some structures have completely collapsed while some elderly citizens are reported to be suffering convulsions as a result of the tremors from the blasting, thereby putting their lives at risk.

Getu Maulana, 62, from Kampani Village is one of the victims whose houses got damaged as a result of the rock-blasting which, according to the chiefs, occurs three times a day.

Maulana said her family has been living in anxiety since their house developed cracks some three years ago during one of the biggest blasts ever experienced.

Commercial entities affected by the mining activities include Speedys Food Industries Limited, MH Investments, SK Nurmohamed (popularly known as SKN) and Moonpuffs Limited.

Speedys Food Industries Limited director Jayaraj Gopalan and Majid Kashmira of SKN said operations at the mining site have greatly affected their businesses.

Said Gopalan: “Our production has shrunk because each time an explosion occurs due to the rock blasts chickens are traumatised.”

But when contacted on the matter, one of the directors of Sino Sky Industries Limited, Hexyoung Mei, speaking through an interpreter Frank Mpinganjira stated: “Whatever the people were experiencing did not concern her company.”

BCC chief executive officer Alfred Chanza claimed he did not know challenges facing the neighbourhood, saying “so far the council has not received any complaint regarding the operations”.

He said even if the council had received a complaint, it would have forwarded it to Ministry of Mines because “they were the ones who issued the mining licence”.

“What I know is that the company has appropriate documents in terms of licence and environmental and social impact assessment.”

The CEO further explained that it was difficult for BCC to give any verdict on the mining operations because that would mean overriding decisions of the ministry.

But Chanza’s statement contradicts documentation Weekend Nation has seen, and the positions of Ministry of Mines director Burnet Msika and the legislator of the area on the matter.

A letter dated April 29 2019 from MH Investments, a manufacturing company neighbouring the mine, to Chanza complains about the mining operations.

Signed by Muhammad Asvan, the letter complains about the “unbearable noise and vibration which is causing both our buildings and machinery to vibrate”.

Chanza also appears to contradict a letter from his office dated December 10 2020 addressed to the mining company, stating that the council and other stakeholders had expressed concern over uncontrolled and unsafe rock-blasting operations at the site.

Signed by BCC director of Town Planning and Estates Services Costly Chanza, on behalf of the CEO, the letter notes that the rock-blasting operations had resulted in heavy noise/dust pollution and dangerous earth shaking to the neighbourhood and was causing damage to neighbouring structures.

In the letter, the council gives the company seven days to furnish it with all the relevant official documentation regarding its mining operations on the site to enable BCC take the next course of action on the matter.

In particular, BCC noted the company’s inability to comply with business licence and ground rental payments, inability to conduct environmental inspections to their activities and inability to manage runoff water from their premises into existing drainage system.Blantyre City East legislator John Bande also disagreed with the BCC CEO, saying he was aware of the existing challenges the communities were facing.

He said: “Actually, the matter was already presented to them. We are just waiting to hear from them. This was one of my handover notes when I just became an MP.

“It is a big concern but we are taking it up with everyone else, including the civil society to support our cause. If it means going the court’s direction, we will be happy to do so and we will not take the matter lying down.”

On his part, the director of mines Msika said his office had not received any complaint regarding the mining operations but stated that  it was incorrect for the BCC CEO to claim ignorance about the mining operations at the site.

He said BCC and communities surrounding the site were consulted before government issued a mining permit to Sino Sky Limited.

“The mining licence was issued following the submission of an approved Environmental and Social Impact Assessment [Esia] report from the Environmental Affairs Department, now Malawi Environment Protection Authority (Mepa).

Msika also said BCC had powers to act on anything regarding the quarry’s operations because it was involved in the Esia in 2017 and also granted business licence to the company, which is renewed annually.

According to the mining licence from the ministry, which Weekend Nation has seen, Sino Sky Industries Limited was granted the rights to mine and process rock aggregates over an area of 0.69 square kilometres near Mzedi Dump Site some 500 metres from Kachere Township.

Mepa director Tawonga Mbale did not respond to our questionnaire when asked to comment on the issue.

But an environmental health expert Save Kumwenda said in an interview he was surprised the quarry mining is being done close to communities where there are existing structures.

Kumwenda, a senior lecturer in the Department of Environmental Health at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences, explained that the blasting disintegrates rocks which in turn produce pollutants such as sulphur dioxide which cause a range of harmful effects on humans, animals and infrastructure.

He said this is the reason when establishing mine businesses regulations need to be followed to the letter such as how far a site should be located from where people reside.

“In our situation [Sino Sky Limited] were not supposed to be operating close to the communities as is the case.”