Urban quarry riles Arcadia residents

WHENEVER there is a blast from the nearby mine quarry, Bianca Boer (47), a resident of Arcadia suburb in Harare, no longer fears for her ears like she used to, despite its deafening effect.

NATHAN GUMA

Rather, watching her house crack from the occasional blasts continually makes her crumble from within. 

“The houses really shake,” says Boer, whose house is less than 500 metres away from the mine. “Sometimes they can blast three times a week, and sometimes even more. Apparently, community leaders have been in talks with the mining company, but after a change in management, the company is not even talking to us anymore. They have closed their doors.

“The mine should just be moved elsewhere away from the residential area.”

Arcadia residents living close to Harare Quarry Mine are bearing the brunt of problems caused by the urban mining activity which is causing infrastructural damage.

Houses have been cracking due to tremors caused by ore blasting, with no compensation from the company.

The ceiling in Boer’s house has developed huge cracks stretching from one wall to the other, while floor tiles have lost their symmetry.

She has filled some of the clefts with concrete, but new crevices have already begun to form on the walls – many of which are likely to widen should the explosions continue.

This situation is festering in several other households, with residents living in fear should the cracking walls fall or cave in due to the tremors.

The conflict between the mining company and residents has also included domestic animals, which are affected by the noise.

“You have a shaking house and, for me, this affects my dogs,” Boer says. “When they blast, the dogs don’t want to be outside. They dash into the house, shivering, so yeah, it is affecting my dogs a lot.”

One of her dogs, a basset-hound look-alike, has found a new resting place under the coffee table within the lounge, despite having its own kennel just outside the house.

“They are afraid,” she says as she strokes it. “It is a pitiful sight watching them disoriented whenever there is a tremor.”

Explosions have adverse effects on dogs and other animals, according to the Harare Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

“The hearing of many animals is much more sensitive than it is in humans and blasts can damage their hearing severely. Dogs can suffer irreversible hearing loss caused by the proximity to the noise of the explosion.

“In addition, the noises caused by explosions create fear and stress which, in turn, can cause phobia in many animals, resulting in increased panic reactions to any loud noises in the future. It is estimated that one-fifth of disappearances of companion animals are due to fireworks and storms,” says the Harare SPCA.

“The other thing is that they do not give us notice when they are about to blast. A single explosion can turn on car alarms,” said a resident who spoke to The NewsHawks.

Violet Simbale, an elderly lady who has been living in Arcadia for close to 40 years, has become accustomed to the detonations.

The front of her house has a patch of cement plaster to cover one of the cracks, and new fissures are starting to show on her newly renovated house.

“My house was built a long time ago using concrete, but it is still cracking due to the shaking made by the blasts. I can imagine the toll this is taking on houses made of brick,” Simbale says.

Despite the quarry extraction which started around the 1940s, Arcadia suburb has little to show for the quarry extraction happening within the community, with roads rutted with potholes. 

“Nothing has been done,” says Engineer Taona Mtungwazi, a local community leader. “So far there is no compensation that has been made towards residents by the quarry mine. We have tried to explain to the quarry that it has to employ modern methods of blasting, ones that do not sound like an atomic bomb has been placed in an area.

“There are modern methods. Overseas, they can demolish a whole building with little noise. So we are saying they should employ modern methods, but it seems like the message is falling on deaf ears.”

In addition, Mtungwazi says Harare Quarry has not been muffling the noise and tremors produced by the blasts.

“There are three types of waves produced by the blasts,” he says. “There is the vertical amplitude wave, then the radial and horizontal ones. So, you can easily tell where your greatest waves will first strike and that the houses will be affected. This will bring the circular and vertical effects of the explosions.”

Mtungwazi says Harare Quarry ought to compensate the residents for damaging their property.

“If they were smart enough, they would at least give compensation in terms of repairs. We have ceilings that are cracking and walls that are falling since they insist on continuing to explode and blast their ore,” says Mtungwazi.

In 2021, Harare Quarry said it would conduct blasting activities from Monday to Friday, between 3pm and 4pm, according to a notice to the residents.

However, locals like Boer no longer want to see the mine.

“I think it (the mine) should simply be moved away from the residential area. They do not give us notice, but they blast the ore whenever they feel like doing so,” Boer complains.