Bye-bye Chomela
Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday November 18, 2016 14:52
BCL mine closed recently after it was placed under provisional liquidation.
The smoke was just nothing to write home about, but it symbolised life and set the town of Selebi-Phikwe apart from other areas. The smoke somehow was a trademark in that it accorded the town a sarcastic yet fond name ‘ko chomeleng’.
It was through the balls of white smoke spewing from the BCL chimney that even a child could tell that the mine was in full production and in good economic health. It was also easy to tell when the production is ailing in that there would be no smoke towering into the atmosphere. This would raise concerns that whatever maintenance would be going on means no income is generated during that period. Life would be called normal once the smoke is restored back into the atmosphere. However, the town paid a heavy price for the smoke identity. It had to part with many officers who for medical reasons could not cope with the choking smell of sulphur dioxide that made the air unfavourable and unhealthy to inhale. Some officers and residents were forced by the situation to relocate while others did so for the sake of the health of their children.
There were days when a large part of the day will be dim due to the smoke bellowing lower than the normal height, thus becoming a nuisance and forcing people to stay indoors until the air has cleared of smoke.
However, that was a normal problem to the residents of the mining town in that they co-existed with the smoke and all went well. There was also a believe that once the emission hovers very low and becoming a nuisance it is a sign that the mine employees were paid and they have abandoned their work out of excitement to withdraw their money. The payday for BCL employees was popularly known as ‘chomela e ole’. Efforts had been made in the past to have those in authority to consider capturing the sulphuric acids emitted by the mine and convert it to other uses and to also set up an emission capture plant to manufacture products like fertilisers as a way of clearing the atmosphere of the emissions.
This was defeated by the fact that the exercise would be costly and the fact that the World Health Organisation had declared that the BCL emissions were not a health hazard in that the contents were within acceptable and permissible limits.
The smoke affected the vegetation, including grazing land and produce in the farms in the areas on the western side of the mine towards Mmadinare and Damuchujenaa. It is hoped that the vegetation, that had ben reduced to lifeless shrubs, will recover and start blossoming again, now that the mine has closed because the smoke seriously affected the plants.