ENVIRONMENTAL Management Authority (EMA) recently ordered
the closure of three Chinese companies that were setting up coke-processing and
solar power plants in Hwange without conducting environmental impact
assessments (EIAs) as required by law.
Tutu Investments, Zimbabwe Zinghxon Coking Company (ZZCC)
and South Mining were recently fined and ordered to stop construction of the
coke processing plants without following due process.
ZZCC and South Mining have coking plants in Lukosi and
Madumabisa, while Tutu Investment is reportedly linked to coke processor,
Hwange Coal Gasification Company.
EMA Matabeleland North provincial manager Chipo Mpofu-Zuze
confirmed the development.
“We did, indeed, receive a complaint that there are some
companies that had started some work without EIAs. We made a follow up and
identified three companies, and we issued them with tickets and order them to
stop whatever developments they were doing. One of them has already submitted a
prospectus, and we are yet to look at it. The other two have stopped and are
still working on their documents,” Mpofu-Zuze said on Friday.
According to sources close to the developments, Tutu
Investments and South Mining were setting up their operations next to a Hwange
Colliery Company concession, while ZZCC had secured private land and begun
bringing in equipment for the construction of coke processing and solar energy
plants.
Officials from ZZCC – a joint venture between the Chinese
and Zimbabwe Defence Forces – allegedly approached one Chihanga – co-owner of
Deka Farm – and entered into an arrangement to set up a solar power station.
“The arrangement was such that the company would lease the
land where it intends to set up a solar farm to generate electricity. However,
one of the co-owners of the farm raised the alarm after he was surprised to
find bulldozers clearing the area without his authority. He, in turn, reported
the matter to EMA and police,” a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said.
According to the Environmental Management Act of 2002,
before conducting an EIA for a project, a developer must submit a prospectus to
the director-general, containing information regarding the assessment and the
project, as may be prescribed.
When approving a prospectus, the director general may fix
conditions relating to the scope of the assessment, of which the developer has
to comply. The contents of the EIA report include a detailed description of the
project, the likely impact it may have on the environment, mitigatory measures
and monitoring among other things. Mpofu-Zuze said the agency had since
embarked on an exercise to educate stakeholders and the public on statutes
whenever a development project has to be undertaken.
Meanwhile, local communities have lashed out at authorities
for sidelining them in the extraction of natural resources in favour of Chinese
investors.
They argue that planning authorities deny them land to
carry out brick moulding or quarry, forcing them to venture into illegal
activities.
EMA recently fined and ordered over 500 illegal brick
moulders in Hwange to cease operations, arguing their unsanctioned activities
were decimating the environment.
Efforts to get a comment from the Chinese firms concerned
were fruitless as they either refused to comment or could not be reached.
Newsday
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