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Issue 00534 |
September 6 - 12, 2008 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Society |
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Mining By Arusha Times Correspondent The disaster at Mererani tanzanite mines early this year in which nearly 80 people were killed could not have occurred if a drainage tunnel from the former open mine in the area was not blocked. The tunnel was dug after a similar disaster in 1998 when the mines were flooded by rain water, killing nearly 100 people. Manyara regional commissioner Henry Shekiffu told a meeting of Youth Development Network last week that the drainage tunnel was constructed to divert water from the open mine from flooding the underground gemstone mines. He added that the
directive to let the tunnel open for storm water drainage was apparently
ignored and was later blocked by some pit owners leading to the March 28
disaster. Official statistics indicate that 78 people were killed during the tragedy which occurred when storm water flooded the mine pits or the pits caved in when mineral diggers were working underground. The death toll figures are adduced from the bodies retrieved from the pits which lack safety valves and modern rescue equipment in case of life threatening accidents. Mererani mines are located Simanjiro district, Manyara region some 60 kilometres south east of Arusha. It is the only place in the world where the rare gemstone is found. Mr. Shekiffu, who spearheaded the rescue efforts, said he had been forced to pinpoint the causes of the recent tragedy because it happened after safety measures were ignored. He said the government directed in 1998 that the open mine, commonly known as D'Souza pit, which had been abandoned, was responsible for collecting rain water which later spilled in the underground pits. D'Souza was the first entrepreneur to start commercial mining of tanzanite soon after the rare mineral which earns the country millions of dollars in export revenue was discovered in the late 1960s. He started his operations with an open pit, given the abundance of the mineral close to the ground surface during those years unlike now when it has to be fetched hundreds of metres underground. However, he abandoned mining tanzanite in the 1970s to the small scale diggers who later abandoned the large pit on an elevated area and which collected water during rains. The RC said without adequate safety measures being taken, he was still concerned over the safety of mining operations, especially in the pits owned by small and medium scale miners at Mererani. This year's tragedy, which took place exactly 10 years after an equally catastrophic disaster in 1998, followed the flooding of at least seven mines with hundreds of workers underground. Very few people were rescued alive. Rescue efforts, which were coordinated by Manyara regional leaders, later turned to retrieving bodies trapped inside, an exercise that took over two months. Samson Kaaya, a
small scale miner at Mererani since the 1990s, has also concurred with
the RC's remarks that the open pit that collected water after rains was
to blame for the disaster. It is estimated
that the blue -purple gemstone generates between $ 100 million and $
300m annually to the Tanzanian economy; mainly in exports.
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