BATONGA elders in Binga have declared some hot springs ‘no go’ areas to members of the public and church sects for fear of desecration.

Many people were thronging the springs for ritual cleansing and faith healing. 

A number of hot springs in Binga, which are tourist attractions and provide water to villagers, have been destroyed due to wanton digging and desecration by traditional and faith healers from all over the country. 

There are also fears from the village elders that their prime water sources are getting polluted by the medicines and chemicals used in the ‘cleansing’ and healing of the sick by these medicine men.

As a result, the elders have mobilised resources and recruited community guards who keep watch over their natural heritage which are sources of medicine as well as rain-asking shrines. 

Water from hot springs is used by the BaTonga tribesmen for healing different ailments that range from bad luck, skin problems and other troublesome diseases found in the valley. 

The water is mixed with an assortment of other herbs and sprinkled at homesteads to ward off bad spirits or to deter witches from entering people’s homes.

There are more than six hot spring sites in Binga; the most popular ones are a few kilometres east of Binga Business Centre and the Kabila Hot Springs in the Lubimbi area. 

Other sites are only known to the BaTonga tribesmen as well as chiefs and these are associated with rain-asking ceremonies.

The Kabila hot springs have been rehabilitated into a community bath, while those at Binga Centre are in the process of being fenced off and preserved as a national monument.

A hot-spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of heated ground water from the earth’s crust. 

The water contains sulphates, calcium, chloride, bicarbonates, sodium and magnesium. 

Water from the springs has got a faint sulphur smell when hot, but it disappears when it cools off and is fit for drinking.

The water from the hot-springs is mixed with herbs and insects derived from the same spring and used for bathing to ward off evil spirits and bad luck.

Those with mental illnesses are taken to the spring during the early hours of the morning when the steam from the spring is at its peak. 

The patient is stripped naked and made to inhale the steam for several minutes before they are clothed again.

They are then made to eat a dragon fly that hovers around the hot spring, so that the evil spirit remains hovering around the spring.

Bathing in the hot spring water itself is believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. 

Those who bath in the water are not supposed to use any form of soap, detergents, perfumes or any type of body creams as this will render the treatment ineffective.  

Most BaTonga families keep a gourd full of hot spring water in their huts, the water is used for drinking or for boiling special herbs. 

Teething children are also given the water to drink on a regular basis because the calcium and bicarbonates in the water helps in the fortification of their bones and teeth.

The water is also taken after one has had a heavy meal, as the bicarbonate in the water help in easing stomach pains and digestive disorders. 

Hot spring water is also sprinkled around the homestead during the night to scare away evil spirits, goblins and other evils associated with darkness. 

The BaTonga, who have converted to Christianity, also use hot spring water as a form of ‘holy water’ which they use to cast out demons.

Life forms found around the hot springs are very unique and any shrub, insect or grass taken from near the hot springs are preserved for medicinal purposes.

According to the BaTonga, the life forms around the hot springs are unique in the sense that they have survived the ‘poisonous’ chemicals and gasses emitted from the hot spring which no other life forms could survive.

When water emerges from the vents, it is loaded with dissolved sulphur and metals that include iron, copper, manganese and calcium. 

When the water contacts the frigid air, certain chemical reactions transform the dissolved metal into fine dust like particles that give the plumes their various colours.

The dried and preserved worms, grasses and insects, because of their resilience to heat and chemicals emitted from the hot spring vents are believed to make very powerful medicine that is used to protect the BaTonga tribesmen from marauding crocodiles, hippos and other deadly water creatures when they set up their fishing nets along the Zambezi River.

The mixed concoction is also used on infertile women. 

It is believed the medicine mixed with hot spring water and tiger fish bones can ‘unlock’ a ‘blocked-up’ womb of a woman, with the same effect that the water jets out of the vents from the earth’s crust.

There are a lot of cultural and historical sites and other places that can unlock tourism revenues for rural communities, but failure to promote and plough back revenues into communities has led to the deterioration of such places, which, if managed carefully, can bring advantages to local communities through generation of income for locals through jobs in tour companies and the selling of souvenirs and local delicacies to tourists.