Dead fish, destroyed crops, and missing birds—an acid spill at a Chinese-owned mine wreaked havoc near a Zambian river. The contamination could affect millions of people.
The spill happened on February 18. According to investigators from the Engineering Institution of Zambia, a tailings dam in the country’s north collapsed. A tailings dam holds mine waste. This one held acidic waste from a copper mine.
During the collapse, over 13 million gallons of acid, dissolved solids, heavy metals, and more flowed into a stream. That stream links to the Kafue River, Zambia’s most important waterway.
About 60% of Zambia’s 20 million people live in the Kafue River basin. Most depend on it for fishing, irrigation for agriculture, or water for industry. The river also supplies drinking water to about five million people, including in Lusaka, the capital.
The acid leak at the mine caused a complete shutdown of the water supply to the nearby city of Kitwe, home to an estimated 700,000 people.
Officials say China is to blame for the spill.
China is the dominant player in Zambia copper mining. The southern African nation is among the world’s top 10 producers of the metal, a key component in smartphones and other tech.
Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema says the leak is a crisis that threatens people and wildlife along the Kafue River.
Zambia officials say the “devastating consequences” also include damaged crops along the river’s banks. Authorities are concerned that mining waste will seep into the soil and pollute groundwater.
The Zambian air force has dropped hundreds of tons of lime into the river in an attempt to offset the acid and roll back the damage. Speed boats have gone up and down the river too, applying lime.
Dead fish washed up on the banks of the Kafue downstream from the mine run by Sino-Metals Leach Zambia. The group is majority-owned by the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Group.
Chinese-owned mining companies want to control the supply of the critical mineral. Some people accuse them of ignoring safety, labor, and other regulations in Zambia. Meanwhile, Zambia is more than $4 billion in debt to China.
The chairman of Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, Zhang Peiwen, met with government ministers last week. He apologized for the acid spill, according to a transcript of his speech.
“This disaster has rung a big alarm for Sino-Metals Leach and the mining industry,” he says. He adds that the company “will go all out to restore the affected environment as quickly as possible.”
Engineer Mweene Himwinga attended the meeting involving Zhang, government ministers, and others. “[Some investors] don’t seem to have any concern at all, any regard at all,” he says. “I think it’s really worrying because at the end of the day, we as Zambian people, [it’s] the only land we have.”
Authorities are still investigating the damage.
“Prior to the 18th of February, this was a vibrant and alive river,” says Sean Cornelius. He lives near the Kafue and says fish died and birdlife near him disappeared almost immediately. “Now everything is dead, it’s like a totally dead river. Unbelievable. Overnight, this river died.”
Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. — John 4:14
