Sinazongwe Villagers are drinking untreated mud water

Villagers living along the Maamba Coal Mine water pipe are drinking the untreated mud water being emitted from the taps that the mine had put for them. A check by ZANIS found out that the water that the villagers drink was direct from Lake Kariba and it does not pass through any treatment plant. A Resident at Rural Council Tilimbane Makalani told ZANIS that they drink the water without boiling it.Ms. Makalani said the villagers have taken it as a normal trend to drink the mud water because they have no option since the mine polluted the rivers where they were getting clean drinking water. “The villagers were initially told to be boiling their drinking water or add chlorine but the villagers here lack education and they do not follow these safety measures,” Ms. Makalani said. Costern Nyirenda said the water pumping station for Maamba Coal mine is situated at the site where sewerage effluent, and from mine is discharged.Mr. Nyirenda said the same water was pumped back into people’s homes to drink it without treating it. Frank Mumpande the owner of Comfort Inn Guest House in Maamba said the calibre of villager headmen who have never been to School was making it difficult for them to know the dangers of drinking contaminated water that the mine was supplying to them. Mr. Mumpande said every investment should benefit the local people unlike the Maamba situation where villagers were being “feed with contaminated water” even after polluting their streams.However, Maamba Maamba Township residents have also continued to drink mud water which is visibly brown.Last week the residents expressed distress at their subjection to drinking mud water coming from the taps. Maamba Hospital Environmental Health Technologist Most Chilomo said the water was unfit for human consumption because it contains a lot of visible impurities. He said in its current state even chlorinating or boiling it would not purify the mud and other impurities that are making it to be coloured. Mr. Chilomo noted that the current filtration process at the Maamba Township treatment plant was outdated because it was designed to treat water that was already clean at the source.He said Sinazongwe health would have advised the Maamba mine to stop discharging water to households but they have failed because most people use flushing toilets.