About the project and its impacts
Communities of the greater Gwanda area are revered and respected for their high quality cattle farming. In Gwanda, cattle farming is a longstanding source of survival, livelihood, and pride. Chinese supported lithium mining has disrupted cattle farming in the Gwanda region and has compromised communities’ livelihood, health, and traditions.
Gwanda Lithium, and its investors, Dinson Iron & Steel Company, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Tsingshan group, have been extracting lithium ore from the Mahongola area since 2023. Mahongola is situated 94 kilometres away from the South-Western Zimbabwean town of Gwanda. Of these 94 kilometres, 44 kilometers are dust road. Dust from lithium ore transportation drifts into and covers classrooms, homes, and grazinglands.
Mining and processing activities have led to increased respiratory diseases, reduced access to water for community and livestock, disrupted schooling, disruption of cultural processes like accessing graves, and disturbed pollination processes. These effects stem mainly from the mine’s high water consumption and of the dust stirred by heavy truck movement.
Reduced water access has caused livestock migration, exposing livestock to theft, and reducing grazing resources for livestock. Plants once eaten by livestock are now covered by dust and are now inedible. Most residents of the greater Gwanda area are subsistence farmers who can no longer sustain their means of living and culture because of the extensive impacts of the Gwanda Lithium Project. Limited access to quality health, education, and welfare resources further constrains the communities’ ability to mitigate the mine impacts.
About the community-led struggle
Resistance strategies against Gwanda Lithium involve collaboration between affected communities and community based organisations like the Gwanda Community Justice Development Trust (GCJDT). GCJDT main aims are guided by the communities they advocate for. Collaborative resistance strategies include petitioning Zimbabwean bodies like the Human Rights Commission, the Ministry of Mining and Mining Development, and the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife.
Communities in the Gwanda area often hold road blockade demonstrations to disrupt mining activities and to prevent the transportation of lithium ore. Road blockades prevent dust agitation and communicate the affected communities’ stance on Gwanda Lithium. Resistance strategies have successfully contributed to the construction of a new road network that is further away from some affected settlements, mitigating dust exposure. GCJDT and communities in the greater Gwanda area hope to secure further successes through the upcoming Environmental Impact Assessment, advocating for the inclusion of their demands and visions in this assessment report.
Communities of the greater Gwanda area envision where investments and resource utilisation do not compromise their health and livelihoods. They desire access to well functioning healthcare, education, and road infrastructure services that can be realised through an agreement between the community and mining stakeholders. Communities of the greater Gwanda area want development to occur, but not in a manner that threatens their ways of life and tradition.
Further resources
News Report “Stuck between lithium rocks and a hard place” (Oxpeckers, 2024).
News Report “Gwanda villagers cry foul: Mine polluting water, ruining lives” (Cite, 2024).