(15 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kitwe, Zambia – 19 February 2025
++DRONE SHOTS++
1. Aerial of Sino Metals showing tailings dam complex and breach
2. Aerial showing path of tailings into the environment
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kitwe, Zambia – 6 March 2025
3. Fishermen on banks of Kafue River
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Helen Kunda, Kafue resident:
“No fish, no fisher here, any one, this morning until here we did not catch any fish, why?"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kitwe, Zambia – 5 March 2025
5. Various of farmer showing environmental activists the damage to fishpond and crops by tailings
6. SOUNDBITE (Bemba) Juliet Bulaya, affected farmer:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
“When I went to the fish pond, I found that the lime had flowed through the pond and all the fish had been swept away, I just stood in agony wondering what I would do about the money I spent on the project, I stood there watching because there was nothing I could do.”
7. Wide of Sean Cornileus driving fishing boat down Kafue River
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Cornileus, Kafue River property resident:
“Prior to the 18th February, this was a vibrant, alive river. We had cormorants, we had king fishers, there was small masenges, the fishing was good. Now, everything is dead, it’s like a totally dead river, unbelievable. Overnight, this river died.”
9. Moving shot of dead fish along riverbank
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Chilekwa Mumba, environmental activist, 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize Winner:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
“It is an environmental disaster, really of catastrophic consequence when we consider the fact that Sino Metals has polluted a river on which millions of people depend for the livelihoods. We are also talking about wildlife and just the general disturbance which has been given, even in not just villages but actual towns.”
11. Various of contaminated river
STORYLINE:
Authorities and environmentalists in Zambia fear the long-term impact of an acid spill at a Chinese-owned mine that contaminated a major river and could potentially affect millions of people after signs of pollution were detected at least 100 kilometers (60 miles) downstream.
The spill happened on Feb. 18 when a tailings dam that holds acidic waste from a copper mine in the north of the country collapsed, according to investigators from the Engineering Institution of Zambia.
The collapse allowed some 50 million liters of waste containing concentrated acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals to flow into a stream that links to the Kafue River, Zambia’s most important waterway, the engineering institution said.
“It is an environmental disaster really of catastrophic consequences,” said Chilekwa Mumba, an environmental activist who works in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province.
China is the dominant player in copper mining in Zambia, a southern African nation which is among the world’s top 10 producers of copper, a key component in smartphones and other technology.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema called for help from experts and said the leak is a crisis that threatens people and wildlife along the Kafue, which runs for more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) through the heart of Zambia.
Authorities are still investigating the extent of the environmental damage.
The Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation said the "devastating consequences" also included the destruction of crops along the river’s banks.
Authorities are concerned that ground water will be contaminated as the mining waste seeps into the earth or is carried to other areas.
AP Video shot by Richard Kille
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