Key Points
- Two children drowned in an open-pit chrome mine on Saturday.
- Villagers have repeatedly urged miners to fill abandoned pits.
- The tragedy highlights ongoing safety risks near Ngwaro Village.
According to reports, Tendai Hove, age 9, and her cousin Leeroy Makungwe, age 11, were lured to the flooded pit while on an errand. Maxwell Moyo, the village chief, attested to the occurrence, which took place at approximately eleven in the morning.
Two children drown in abandoned mine near Ngwaro Village
According to Moyo, the kids were lured to the mining pits that remained after the extraction operations, even though they had been dispatched on an errand. “Roughly three o’clock that same day, we recovered their bodies.”
Other kids who were swimming in the pit’s shallower areas managed to get out unscathed.
Owned by a group of local investors operating under the ZimAsset framework with assistance from Chinese players, the mine is about 800 meters from the hamlet.
The safety of the abandoned pits, which fill with water during the rainy season and endanger children and cattle, has long been a source of worry for the villagers. Since operations started last year, Moyo claims that numerous requests to the mining operators to fill the pits have gone unfulfilled.
Villagers accuse miners of ignoring safety pleas for over a year
The community had anticipated such a tragedy might happen, according to one villager, who wished to remain unnamed. According to the New Zimbabwe, “the miners leave these pits unfilled, and during the rainy season, they become death traps.” “Nothing changes in spite of our complaints. We and our livestock are at risk from these dangers as the problem has grown too political to be resolved.
Moyo called on authorities to step in and hold mining firms responsible, stressing the need for immediate action to stop additional deaths.
“These tragedies could have been prevented,” Moyo stated. “Our voices are disregarded despite the numerous warnings we have given them. We are currently grieving the deaths of two defenseless kids.
