Lumezi Town Council says newly discovered, unregulated gold mining activities in Kabulasisi local forest under Chief Kazembe’s area in Lumezi District have raised public health concern with the local authority.
Lumezi Town Council Secretary, Mary Sinkala says she has received disturbing reports of unprecedented human influx at the gold mining site, where over 4,000 people are conducting mining activities in an unregulated manner.
Ms Sinkala says following these reports, she visited the mining area, accompanied by public health inspectors and council police to ascertain sanitary and safety measures.
She is worried that the mining area is hard-to-reach as people have to cross the Lundazi River using buckets as life support due to lack of any vessel at the crossing point, a situation she says is dangerous for the people, with reports so far indicating that two people have since drowned.
And Chief Kazembe’s representative, Gibson Mtonga has called on the authorities to quickly intervene in resolving the challenge at the crossing point.
