Mercury is listed on the top 10 chemicals for public concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). There are health and environmental concern in the use of mercury has it causes the Minamata disease in people. The small amounts of mercury can cause serious health problems and can have serious negative effects on the development and growth of a fetus. According to WHO article mercury may have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, and on lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes. Thus some people welcomed the ban of mercury as a good move by the Government to checkmate the adverse effects of mercury.

I grew up in Bindura, a small mining town, a hub of small-scale miners popularly known as makorokoza. It was normal thing to see the quicksilver in their small dishes when they extract the precious yellow metal that is gold. At sight one could see the brown, sandy and muddy covered people wearing torn clothes at work on their mining fields and with a closer look you could be able to see their processing of ore to gold using the quicksilver mercury. There was poor handling of mercury as people touched the mercury with bare hands and that is harmful since mercury is a liquid metal thus mercury absorbs instantly into the skin. Furthermore, the mercury was washed away into the river since the small scale miners mining takes place along river banks. Therefore, the river water and groundwater is at risk of mercury contamination and that is harmful to the environment and people.

The ban on mercury was debated by the small-scale miners as it was a way to ‘kill’ them. Gold mining and using mercury is their life as gold is their sole source of income for them to survive so the ban of mercury was more like a death sentence. It is now illegal to possess mercury and use it mining as it is highly restricted and controlled by the authorities but if you go to their mining fields it is still in use since they argue that the government had not given them the alternatives. The small scale miners boast of producing more than half of the national gold output in Zimbabwe so they have the supplier power to push indirectly some enforcement reluctant.

The government to full rectify to the Minamata Convention it needs not only to ban the use of mercury in gold extraction but also to extent its ban to some products that use mercury. Some actions need to be done according to WHO are promotion of the use of clean energy sources that do not burn coal as coal is high source of mercury and phase out use of non-essential mercury-containing products and implement safe handling, use and disposal of remaining mercury-containing products such as batteries, measuring devices, such as thermometers and barometers, electrical appliances, dental amalgam (for dental fillings), skin-lightening products and other cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

REFERENCES

Mercury and Health, WHO article Online 31/03/2017 [last accessed 10/01/2021] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mercury-and-health

Zim bans mercury use, The Herald Online 29/12/2020 [last accessed 10/01/2021] https://www.herald.co.zw/zim-bans-mercury-use/