Last week, I unsuspectingly stumbled upon a document touching on various issues affecting the people of Chiadzwa following the discovery of alluvial diamonds in Marange in 2006.
It is pertinent to note that since the discovery of the diamonds that year, the community has been under siege from various quarters from diamond sharks, foreigners and government bureaucrats.
In a Citizen’s Guide to Understanding Ecological Debt, it is estimated that since the alluvial diamonds discovery, 15 000 people from across the country and elsewhere descended on Chiadzwa to mine and deal in diamonds, and the result was a free- for-all situation.
Some villagers made quite a fortune from alluvial diamonds, while others bore the resource case brunt.
Currently, there are a lot of human rights issues dovetailing from the obtaining situation in the area.
Of course, government and a Chinese firm, Anjin, have resettled a sizeable number of villagers from Chiadzwa to Arda Transau Farm some 60km away. But the families only got $1 000 each and groceries for one month as compensation.
Furthermore, they were reportedly resettled into small three-roomed houses at a farm where social amenities are not adequate.
Some 4 000 families are yet to be relocated from the area. With what has happened to the already relocated families, it therefore follows that the relocation itself does not show genuine concern for the lives of the people by the mining firms and supposedly by government.
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Ironically, the villagers have not been adequately consulted about the levels of compensation and the timeframe of relocation and this has reportedly made it difficult for the people to plan and grow crops as they were not sure when the resettlement exercise would be done.
Surprisingly, government and diamond firms have reportedly set aside $5 million each for resettlement of the community as part of investment, but it appears this money is not available as no meaningful compensation has been made to the villagers of Chiadzwa.
One of the distressing aspects about diamond mining in the area from an environmental perspective one is that mining firms started mining diamonds without complying with applicable environmental legislation and principles.
Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are very important planning tools that reveal the potential environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts of proposed projects such as mining and possible mitigation measures.
Apparently, in Chiadzwa, the diamond firms only complied with this legal requirement after the Environmental Management Agency had raised concern.
This no doubt clearly shows disregard of environmental requirements.
Reports from Chiadzwa also indicate dams in the area are silting as a result of alluvial diamond mining operations by some of the mining firms.
This environmental damage will certainly cause an ecological debt as the diamonds are a non-renewable resource that is being plundered while the local community is not getting any tangible economic, social and cultural benefits and may be relocated.
Suffice to mention that the diamond mining operations have also affected the cultural interests and rights of the people in Marange.
While these problems continue to dog the community, the mining firms will export the diamonds and realise huge profits from the sale of the gems.
This situation in Chiadzwa illustrates the agony of a community under siege as more and more mining firms will get mining licences and disregard the environmental, economic, social and cultural rights of the people in pursuance of profit from natural resources extraction.
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