Community-Based Monitoring Detects Sources and Risks of Mining-Related Water Pollution in Zimbabwe

Although mining and mineral processing are vital for many economies in the Global South, they are associated with enormous challenges of managing potentially devastating environmental impacts. In contexts where environmental oversight agencies often lack financial and personal capacities to fulfill their role, community-based monitoring might be a valid alternative to monitor potential environmental impacts. In this study, we present the setup and the implementation of a citizen science project to monitor water quality parameters in a river downstream of a coal mining area in Hwange, Western Zimbabwe. In a joint effort over 1.5 years, community monitors and scientists took close to 800 water samples in the Deka River and effluent channels. The data allowed identifying sources of pollution and relating these to past and present mining activities. The primary source of acid mine drainage came from abandoned underground mine sites. Illegal mine water dumping from active mine sites accentuated the problem and resulted in fish kills and food risks for the local population. Concentrations of manganese, nickel and arsenic were exceeding national fresh water guidelines and international drinking water standards. Manganese concentrations exceeded guidelines by a factor of 70 resulting in a public health risk. In this study, we showed that community-based monitoring offers a promising approach to establish a high-quality dataset for assessing mining-related risks if the implementation of sampling protocols is followed tightly. The monitoring scheme significantly improves the collection and interpretation of water quality data in challenging contexts where governmental institutions and industrial players are not enforcing environmental standards.