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We raised alarm on Mererani last week!
2008-04-02 10:23:37
By Editor
As recently as Tuesday last week, we used this column to remind and warn authorities that it was futile to enact laws or formulate policies unless their implementation was assured.
We said laws and policies should be there for a reason - or those drafting and endorsing them should be declared redundant.
However flamboyant, sophisticated or well-meaning a piece of legislation is, it is of use and relevance only if it is an agent of positive social change.
Additionally, it must be tested through veritable actions whose results can easily be measured against agreed benchmarks.
We made direct reference to Tanzania`s 1998 legislation on mining, which contains clauses committing the government to the extension of technical and marketing support to the country`s small-scale mining industry.
The law says the government would oversee training on mining safety and get it enforced through rules and regulations, transfer of affordable technologies, and the imparting of better skills to small miners.
On Tuesday we said the 1998 law and policy had largely been ignored, and Saturday`s tragedy at Mererani in which some 70 small-scale miners are believed killed in flooded tanzanite mining pits confirms our worst fears.
The catastrophic incident has added to mounting evidence that small-scale mining is all set to continue being precariously exposed to very serious hazards.
A similar flood-induced tragedy struck the same area a decade or so ago, leaving about 100 small-scale miners drowning underground.
Then six years ago, the failure of an air compressor machine caused the deaths of some 40 miners.
Mining safety is site-specific and in places like Mererani, where disastrous floods are known to be common whenever torrential rains fall, one would expect an early weather warning mechanism to be in place.
One would also expect to see mining pit owners ensuring adherence to safety requirements.
Today\'s is a world of state-of-the-art information and communication technologies that can be effectively deployed at mining sites for safety and emergency purposes.
One way to go about it is for regulations to demand the creation of a mine-specific safety insurance fund on which small-scale miners could collectively rely for the acquisition of rescue equipment.
One good thing about small miners is that they have the cash and all they still badly need are better tools, leadership, encouragement and markets.
That granted, we should be sure of avoiding needless rude surprises such as the one of search and rescue teams now failing to swing into action swiftly and well-equipped enough to save their colleagues trapped in mining pits.
The availability of enough emergency escape and rescue routes is a definite necessity the law should make mandatory at all mining sites.
President Jakaya Kikwete has just toured the post-disaster Mererani mining area. Wonderful.
He should now find time to want to know what happened to the recommendations of the 2004 mineral policy review committee appraisal, which included ways to make small-scale mining operations safer.
Quick quip: The committee`s findings are yet to be made public. We wonder why.
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