Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Lead legacy: research shows that lead, a base metal used for making car batteries, still contaminates Zambian towns years after mines are closed down.
The growing demand for transition minerals in the region has inspired a surge in exploration for and mining of copper, cobalt and manganese in Zambia. However, most of the mining activities are unsustainable and inflict costs on local communities while bringing them no tangible benefits, said Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda, executive director of Lusaka-based NGO Panos Institute Southern Africa.
“High levels of poverty in the mineral-rich areas suggest that Zambians are not benefiting from the growth of the mining industry yet. The law makes it mandatory for mining companies to provide compensation to people affected by mining, but there are loopholes in enforcement which have resulted in very limited, if not non-realisation of the intended objectives.”
But Kearns said Luapula has not realised any benefits from decades of mining for manganese: “The communities are not benefiting from mining, yet all the rivers and streams in the Mansa River catchment are polluted with mine effluent. The pollution affects thousands of people downstream who depend on these rivers to meet daily water needs for their households.
Care for Nature Zambia: Nsama Musonda Kearns at the launch of the Women’s Land Rights and Climate Justice Project in October 2023. Photo suppliedThe acrimonious nature of interactions between Zambian host communities and mining operators is best illustrated by the treatment of the people of Mwale village in Mansa District in Luapula by a company using equipment branded “Atezo Mining”.
“Buyers pay as low as K2.50 per bucket of manganese ore, which they are forced to accept out of desperation because they need income for their households,” the minutes stated. “The women are happy to be in mining, but they worry that the working conditions are not safe. “Kabwe faces a disaster from the contamination of water and soils with lead from the tailings dump. It is now in the soil, in the water and it circulates in the dusty air we breathe. The land is bare because the contaminated soils cannot sustain any vegetation,” Phiri said.