The communities paying the price for Zambia’s toxic mining disaster
Under a pale mid-morning sun, Frank Nkulu scans his cropland for signs of life. At the start of this year, his vegetables flourished here in Garneton, in Zambia’s Copperbelt province. Now, the once-fertile soil on the outskirts of Kitwe clings to his boots like wet clay.
Nkulu, 40, is one of dozens of small-scale farmers whose livelihoods were upended in February by the collapse of a tailings facility used to store waste material from mining operations. Official estimates state the facility, part of a mine operated by Sino Metals Leach Zambia, released 50,000 tonnes of acidic effluent into tributaries of the Kafue River – a figure that has been disputed. The toxic flow swept through farmland, contaminated rivers and killed fish. Signs of pollution were detected 100km downstream.
