Good afternoon. Why has it taken until an election year for the authorities to investigate the appalling pollution caused by Vulcan's coal mining in the town of Moatize (see below)? The answer, of course, is in the question, at least in part. Complaints about coal dust getting everywhere go back at least a decade, beyond Vulcan to the time when the mine was operated by Brazil’s Vale, and they were not acted upon. On the other hand, it is true that things seem to have got worse since Vulcan took over in 2021. Videos of thick clouds of coal dust hanging over the town make for shocking viewing. The firm has been cutting costs and has a reputation for caring less about environmental impact. One way of reducing costs is through fewer, larger detonations, which have already wrecked neighbouring homes.
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It remains to be seen if any action will result from this investigation. The track record of the National Agency for Environmental Quality Control is not encouraging: in 2019 Zitamar News found that the agency had effectively obstructed locals in Moatize from monitoring pollution levels, by withholding monitoring equipment that had been given to residents by a United Nations agency.
