Zimbabwe's formal commitment to reduce mercury use under the Minamata Convention stands in sharp contrast to the reality on the ground. In mining areas, mercury is openly sold and used without restriction, contaminating water sources that supply thousands of people.

Despite the government of Zimbabwe's on-paper commitment to reduce and regulate the use of mercury in mining, the toxic metal remains pervasive and unfettered in the country's artisanal gold mining sector.

Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Minamata Convention.

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The objective of the convention is to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions of mercury and mercury compounds. It sets out a range of measures to meet that objective. These measures include controlling the supply and trade of mercury and the regulation of mercury-added products and manufacturing processes. It also commits signatories to reducing, and where feasible eliminating, mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

But Zimbabwe's conformity to the Minamata Convention - while good on paper - seems to be far off the mark, if observations on the ground are anything to go by.

Field notes from an artisanal mining site

In Penhalonga, a mining area 20km from Zimbabwe's eastern border city of Mutare, small blue tents are haphazardly strewn across hills opposite a strip of shops.

Men and women of all ages make a beeline to and from the shops. Their bodies, clothes and faces are covered in red clay; often it is only their...