By Lake Zone Watch Writer
Government has said that amendments of the 2023 regulations and obligations for holders of mining licences regarding community social responsibility projects are aimed at ensuring equal participation of the communities and companies involved.
Deputy Minister for Minerals, Dr Stephen Kiruswa, said this in Dodoma yesterday when opening a meeting which discussed amendment of the mining regulations which were introduced last year.
The meeting brought together representatives of mining companies, mining experts from various district councils in the country, Regional and District Commissioners, Members of Parliament, chairmen and District Executive Directors, public institutions, mining associations and civil society organisations from areas engaged in mining.
The minister said amendment of the regulations dwells on section 105 of the 2010 Mining Act which spells out the obligations entrusted to mining companies towards their community social responsibility aspect.
He said so far the mining sector has achieved notable progress, although implementation of the CSR regulations has encountered several hiccups which need to be worked upon through amendments.
Some of the challenges, according to the minister, centre on untimely preparation and implementation of project plans, lack of guidelines in implementing CSR plans, which according to the Mining Act fall in the hands of local government authorities by involving mining licence holders.
Other challenges are lack of consensus between local authorities and mining licence holders on the type of projects to be implemented, scanty knowledge on CSR by the recipients (communities involved) and conflicts between local authorities and mining companies, just to mention few.
Dr Kiruswa said the government is now mobilising mining companies to increase their contributions to the implementation of CSR projects.
According to the minister, between 2018 and 2023, mining firms in the country contributed a total of 96.6 billion shillings towards implementation of CSR projects in mining areas.