A 2 year old girl was killed together with two miners but her mother survived from the accident
A
two year old girl and two men aged 24 and 25 were killed on a Christmas day when
upper cavity of a tunnel they were in,
searching precious stones collapsed
and fell on them.
The tragic accident that took place at Sadzu
village along Lilongwe river bank in Salima District has also left the mother
of the girl and another man in serious injuries and are currently admitted at
Salima District hospital.
Salima Police Public Relations Officer Sergeant
Gift Chitowe confirmed that the three died in a 2 metre deep hole and mom of the girl and a man, survived with
serious injuries.
He
said the little girl was just following her mom and miners digging closer to
the collapsed hole carried rescue operation but found the three already dead.
“These
people stay at Sadzu village and they went to a mining area located in the same
village. They were all in the same hole mining gemstones and suddenly the upper
cavity of the tunnel collapsed and fell on them.”
Police
have identified the deceased as Adams Mwale aged 24 from Mpaliro village of T/A
Chatoloma in Kasungu, Juston Bajesi aged 25 of Sangwa village T/A Khombeza in
Salima and a 2 year old girl Linda Jakamusi whose mother Susan Chimbalanga from
Katole village T/A Khombedza survived the accident together with Mbuli John aged
21 from Mwamadi village T/A Kambwiri Salima.
Sergeant
Chitowe says the mining activities that have just emerged in the area for the
past two months by people from the districts of Dedza, Lilongwe, Dowa, and Nkhotakota
are extracting red and white Galanite gemstones. He said such activities are
being done without license and protective materials like proper mining clothing.
He also said the owners of the collapsed mine had no license too.
“As
Police we are advising members of the general public to take proper measures
whenever they are mining in order to prevent these incidences in future. They need
to follow the right channels whenever they are doing this job” he advised, he
added “They must realize that it is dangerous to do mining, they need to have
protective wears and must follow right procedures from relevant authorities and
get registered with government.”
Currently
Malawi government is in the process of formalizing the mining subsector Artisanal
and Small Scale Miners (ASM) by registering everyone involved in these activities
in order to end numerous challenges the subsector is facing. The subsector is
not well regulated, has no proper markets and access to financial support and
equipments for their job is difficult
Through
the recent ASM Policy Consultation Symposium urged all miners to get registered
and both government and private sector were challenged to provide necessary support
to ASM in areas of financial literacy and access to loans, necessary tools and access
to markets.
Over
20 Thousand people in the country are employed in Artisanal and Small Scale
Mining activities and proper formalization of the subsector by putting proper
regulations and monitoring of such activities will not only increase 10% the
mining sector contributes to the Malawi GDP or provide better markets for ASM but
will also help to provide necessary resources that may help the miners to carry
out their mining activities in a safe environment.
This year similar incident occurred in Dowa district where three women suffocated
to death and one was left with sustained serious injuries when an upper cavity
of a tunnel they were in to extract clay soil collapsed and fell on them on 23rd April. The incident took place at Bimphi
village T/A Chiwere where four women were inside the tunnel extracting clay
soil which they wanted to use in smearing their houses for decoration.
No comments:
Post a Comment