El Nino rains threaten mines
Mererani gemstone mines in Manyara Region could be flooded again should the area experience abnormally heavy El Nino rains later this year.
Miners operating there said they were worried about the situation because of an abandoned pit-turned-drainage tunnel said to be responsible for the previous disaster in March last year that has not been unblocked.
During the tragedy nearly 80 people working underground were killed after the mine pits were flooded by heavy rains.
Reports from the mines, located 60 kilometres south east of Arusha, have it that there is a heightened concern that a similar tragedy could be repeated should the El Nino rains fall.
A meeting convened by small miners last week to discuss the issue was told that safety measures proposed after last year’s disaster have not been put in place.
These included unblocking a drainage tunnel that is said to have been responsible for flooding the pits during heavy rains when miners were inside.
The open tunnel, commonly known as D’Souza, has remained blocked for many years. When a heavy storm hit the area on March 28, 2009 its walls collapsed spilling water into several mine pits.
One of the safety measures proposed to stop the recurrence of a similar tragedy was unblocking of the tunnel so that it drains rain water downstream instead of collecting large volumes of water.
A small scale miner, Mr Mathew Ngowi, cautioned the mining community at Mererani not to ignore warnings about a possible disaster to accompany the El Nino rains.
Recently, meteorological experts announced that the country is likely to experience abnormally heavy rains associated with El Nino. This is a weather phenomenon spurred by the warming up of water over south Pacific.
Mr Ngowi said the Mererani gemstone mines still lacked safety measures despite recurring disasters. Another major tragedy hit the area in April 1998 when about 100 people died as mines were flooded during El Nino rains.
He urged the pit owners to construct drainage trenches around their pits to ease the passage of water during heavy rains. Most of the victims are normally pit miners known as Wana-Apolo.
But another mine operator. Mr Salim Ngoya, blamed the Government for doing little on the Mererani disasters, including providing safety measures for all mine operators.
The secretary of the Manyara Regional Miners Association (Marema), Mr Abubakar Mollel, said at least Sh1 billion would be needed to construct a drainage from the D�Souza open pit.
The Manyara regional commissioner, Mr Henry Shekiffu, has been quoted as blaming gemstone pit owners for blocking the drainage from the abandoned open pit. This resulted in the catastrophic flooding of the mines last year.
The controversial pit belonged to one D’Souza. He was among the first entrepreneurs to start commercial mining of tanzanite soon after the rare gemstone was discovered at Mererani in the late 1960s.
Source – The Citizen