Cempa to fight mining effects on environment

Miners should tread carefully in their day to day operations because Centre for Mining Policy Alternatives (Cempa) has come to fight against irresponsible mining which negatively affects the environment.

The organisation’s advocacy manager, Mathews Mpofu, told Weekend Nation on Wednesday that their body has been established after noting the impact that mining activities have on people’s health and the environment.

“Mining firms need to put in place measures and assurances about the safety, health and well-being of all those affected, directly or indirectly. We need to promote responsible and fair extractive mining by championing urgent law reform and facilitating the formulation of responsive and people-based policies in this industry,” said Mpofu.

He said Cempa also aims at raising policy awareness about the rapid expansion of activity in the extractive industry and its linkage to global environmental and developmental issues such as food security and water pollution.

“We also want to lobby for urgent law reform to align the legal framework to the demands and standards of modern day mineral extraction,” he said.