The Mozambican authorities have granted about 700 hectares of the territory of the town of Nhamatanda for mining purposes, without respecting environmental protection procedures. The population is outraged with the situation.

The concession for mining purposes was awarded to four foreign-owned companies for gold, stone and sand mining and construction.

The mayor of Nhamatanda, António Charumar, responsible for issuing the Direito de Uso e Aproveitamento de Terra (DUAT), says he was not consulted about the transfer of land.

According to DW's report, the works endanger various state infrastructures such as buildings, a national highway and unique dwellings.

The population complains about the lack of supervision and respect for human life.

"We have been suffering from earthquakes"

The Hiperbrita company's mine site is about 900 meters from a sprawling residential neighborhood, which includes state infrastructure such as the Technical Secretariat of Electoral Administration, the District Planning and Infrastructure Service a health training center, and national road number six.

This company is accused of using explosives outside of the hours established by law, which has residents worried.

Vilma José, who lives in the fifth neighborhood, where the two quarries - one of them to Hiperbrita - were installed a year and a half ago, is building a house with precarious material. The explosions make the task impossible.

"We have been suffering from earthquakes. The houses have suffered too, they are already creating cracks and other problems. It's not good for the children and not for us either, it creates a lot of problems," he complains.

Marta Tomé and Nelson Humberto, residents of the same neighborhood, say that "it makes a lot of noise because they throw a rock, I think it's a really big rock, and it makes noise until the house shakes by itself and we shake inside too".

Nelson Humberto puts forward a solution: "If they're going to move a distance of more or twenty kilometers away because then we're in a bad way, our houses suffer, it's better to stop working here."

When will the municipal bodies respond?

Citizen Naftal has also lived in this neighborhood for eleven years. "We were allocated the spaces in 2011, with the former administration, and at that time we never imagined that this housing area could have a quarry," he recalls.

Naftal says that the residents have met several times to complain to the authorities.

"They were quiet for a while, but since then there have been at least three bursts, but who can answer why they put the quarry near here are the municipal bodies because this quarry appears at a time when they have a municipality here," he stresses.

DW Africa tried unsuccessfully to hear from the mining companies concerned and the municipality of Nhamatanda.

The Ministry of Land and Mineral Resources says it cannot produce the legal documents for the creation of these companies because the archives were destroyed by cyclones.