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70 feared dead in mine collapse
2008-03-30 09:44:16
By Charles Ole Ngereza, PST, Arusha
Tragedy has befallen the small-scale tanzanite mining community in Mererani area in Simanjiro district, Manyara region where 75 people are feared to have perished in flooded mines.
The calamity that left the entire Mererani community devastated struck on Friday night following torrential rains lasting for some hours and flooded most of the pits.
According to Acting Manyara Regional Police Commander, Simon Mgawe, four bodies have been recovered as search for others continued.
He identified the recovered bodies of the deceased as Ellid Kivuyo, Erick Emmanuel, Gabriel Nicholus and Salum Abdallah all employees of a South African tanzanite mining company, Tanzanite One.
Explaining how the number of fatalities was reached upon while most of the bodies were yet to be recovered, Mgawe said a roll call was carried out early yesterday morning by each pit manager being required to provide information on any missing miner. ``The tally stood at 75 although the number might be higher than that.``
Members of the regional security committee, a team of mining experts and other stakeholders from the region are said to have arrived at the area to give every needed support to the ongoing body recovery exercise.
Residents from neighbouring villages flocked to the scene of accident to learn about the fate of their relatives while others gathered at Mount Meru regional hospital for identification of bodies recovered from the flooded pits.
Some of the interviewed residents blamed the authorities for what they described as poor safety measures for the miners.
Damson Mseleki (36) recalled similar tragic incident in 2004 that claimed lives of nearly 200 small-scale tanzanite miners in Mererani.
``Does it really click in somebody`s mind that owners of pits are not capable of protecting the workers by building some kind of embankment around the pits to stop water from entering the pits?
The authorities pledged monitoring of safety measures after the previous tragedy but it seems nothing was accomplished,`` Mseleki lamented.
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