The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) says it is rolling out numerous initiatives to ensure that the Hwange Thermal Power Station limits air pollution harmful to surrounding communities.
The development follows a report last week in The Weekly which revealed that smoke plumes from the furnaces that fire the boilers that produce steam, which powers the turbines that generate electricity at Hwange Power Station, is increasingly contributing to air pollution.
Over 60,000 villagers, residing mostly west of the ZESA Holdings’ Hwange Thermal Power Station, are at risk of contracting lung and respiratory diseases because of the pollution that has characterised the mining town for decades.
The residents are in the direct path of the polluted air and recently put forward a petition to EMA imploring the entity to regulate emissions from the power station.
On Thursday last week, EMA’s Environmental Education and Publicity Manager, Amkela Sidange, told The Weekly that they are now seized with the matter.
“The old establishment of Hwange Power Station sometimes go beyond the allowable limits of emissions, so what we are doing is regular monitoring of the emissions and continuous engagement for re-tooling taking into cognisance that this is an old establishment and probably with outdated equipment so there is the need to retool.
“From a layman’s understanding we need to say there is what we call point source pollution, which is coming from the power station and then the non-point source pollution from dusty roads when trucks move and from coal yards where when wind blows it raises the coal dust. So we are monitoring and regulating both in Hwange” she said.
Under Statutory Instrument 6 of 2007 companies and individuals face a fine or jail term or both for polluting the environment.
Hwange district boasts of high-quality coal deposits for thermal, industrial and cooking coal which is now backfiring on communities through air pollution.
Sidange said there will continue doing awareness programmes in the Hwange due to these circumstances.
“The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) is guided by the pieces of legislation it enforces and in the case of air emissions, the parent act Environmental Management Act (Cap 20:27) as read with Statutory Instrument 72 of 2009.
“The Agency’s mandate include monitoring compliance to the conditions of the Environmental impact assessment (EIA) licencing for the company, monitoring compliance to the Environmental Management Plan(EMP) routine and adhoc compliance inspections. Environmental audits are done twice a year as mandated at law.
“Where emissions are above allowable specifications, the Agency issues an environmental Protection Order for abatement measures to be put in place by the project and a fine is raised as provided by law.
“Awareness raising and continuous engagement of communities and stakeholders on the state of environment in Hwange is being done,” she said.
Sidange added that development project companies are called upon to ensure that they put in place all pollution abatement measures for both point source and non point source pollution within their project area and that their pollution levels are in compliance with both WHO and SAZ standards,” she said.
Besides the problem of air pollution, Zimbabwe has an estimated 26 billion tonnes of coal reserves suitable for power generation and at the current rate of extraction of three million tonnes per year, this translates to more than 8,000 years of mining.
The dangers are that Zimbabwe will be at the centre of perpetual carbon emissions for centuries to come and emitting of toxic gases that include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury, which are hazardous to general life and the environment.
In April this year, Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) director Farai Maguwu in a media statement warned that residents in Hwange were at risk of contracting lung infections because of the severe air pollution by Hwange Thermal Power Station.
“The people are at serious risk of contracting pulmonary (lung) diseases. Atmospheric air has been affected by the emissions from the Zimbabwe Power Company furnaces. The continuous emissions will in the long run contribute to acid rain, ozone depletion and global environmental problems that can potentially lead to reduced rainfall and an increase in temperatures,” he said.
“Trees and plants are dying because of the underground heat emanating from coal burial, while mining-induced subsidence, without adequate prevention or repair measures, often results in the abrupt sinking of the ground surface, destroying the ecosystem, roads and killing both humans and animals,” added Maguwu.
CNRG has therefore been trying to break the silence on the environmental disaster that has plunged the coal mining town into a further dire crisis.