Tinotenda Hove – The Youth Empowerment and Skills Development Association (YESDA), in collaboration with the Bikita Institute of Land and Development (BILD), facilitated a community meeting that brought villagers from Murape and other local villages in Ward 11 together with various public officials to discuss water scarcity and other challenges inflicted by mining activities in their communities.

The local villagers expressed that the construction of a slime dam by Zimbabwe’s largest lithium producer, Chinese-owned Sinomine Resource Group Bikita Minerals in Murape Village, caused extremely devastating effects on the local water supply. The slime dam cut off access to water for a hundred households, who had relied on their long-protected well at Nollen Farm, and left them without any alternative sources of water. The organisations have observed that the affected communities are now relying on fetching unclean and unhealthy water from the canal, which is contaminated by slime dam residues.

The meeting facilitated the establishment of a local mediation committee that shall organize and facilitate inclusive dialogue meetings between villagers, Bikita Minerals management, and public officials for constructive engagements to enable the handling of the raised community concerns within reasonable timeframes.

The established committee, with the support of the two youth organisations, shall bring the conflicting parties together and facilitate the peaceful, collective, and non-political discussions of the minerals-related conflicts, where community-centered, environmentally friendly, and sustainable solutions shall be considered.