Women in Hwange are protesting increasing coal dust in the area coming from mining activities in the district.
The women are urging relevant authorities to take action.
The worst affected areas are Ingagula and Number 2.
In June this year, the Hwange women took to the streets to express their worries over the long-term health effects of coal dust emanating from the mushrooming of mining entities in the town.
During the protest march, the women called upon the relevant stakeholders to take action.
In recent interviews with The Weekly, the women in Hwange who took part in the June protest march said that nothing has changed.
“The coal dust is still there, and it is affecting us more as women because we will be mostly at home with children and all the time we are inhaling it. We fear for our health and that of our children,” said Sheilla Mayibuye, a resident of Hwange who took part in the June protest march.
Mercy Ndlovu, another woman who took part in the June march also expressed concerns with the increasing coal dust in the area. She lives in Ingagula.
“We are grateful jobs have been created through these mines but we are crying foul over the environmental pollution caused by the mines. There is simply too much coal dust and its affecting us more as women,” she said.
The Weekly gathered that coal dust in Hwange comes from the blasts and extractives in the mining activities. The coal dust usually causes grey like smoke damaging plants in the surrounding areas.
The development has therefore meant that women with small vegetable gardens put together for nutritious food and income from selling the fresh produce is now being affected.
“We have not been able to yield anything from our gardens; the coal dust turns our vegetables or plantation into a greyish colour. We toil all day in our gardens but it is now useless because the vegetables are being affected by the coal dust,” said Issabel Baloyi of Number 2 area.
Other women said the coal dust menace has also increased their labour on laundry.
“We battle to do laundry. Anything in white, because of the coal dust just turn into grey. Its too much work for us to clean the clothes of school children which are white as part of sports attire and those of other family members,” said Nonhlanhla Mabhena of Ingagula area.
The women appealed for the mining companies to at least suppress the dust with water during their operations.
Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) has been consistent in calling for the avoidance of all harmful results from the extraction of natural resources such as coal in Hwange.
Since 2014, CNRG has been in Hwange, working with the community to build their agency to defend their right to live in a clean and safe environment.
CNRG has thus intensified the #Right2SayNO campaign in Hwange and Manicaland (Penhalonga).
The Right2SayNO is a grassroots campaign that asserts the rights of communities to turn down or reject projects that are imposed on them, particularly extractive projects that affect their right to land, water, forests, rivers, seas, and oceans.