Environment and Social Impacts of Stone Quarrying: South Western Ethiopia, in Case of Bahir Dar Zuria Wereda Zenzelma Kebele

Abstract

All over the world there is a realization that quarrying activities has evolved over time to mining industry that has the potential to provide hither to unparalleled services to management in their efforts to reduce effects of quarrying risks to the human being and the surroundings. This potentially has been turned into a challenge and embodied in the new definition of quarrying from the committee of sponsoring organization of the tread way commission on quarrying activities. Quarries are generally used for extracting construction materials, such as dimension stone, ornamental stones and road, building and industrial raw materials. A quarry is a type of open-pit surface mining from which rock or minerals are extracted. However, mining and quarrying are destructive enterprises (Sinha, et al., 2000) and involve the complete destruction of the habitat of an area where they take place (MartínezRuiz et.al, 2007). The destruction and fragmentation of habitat is the greatest threat to biodiversity and the primary cause of species extinction (Aronson et al., 1993).