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By Ben Farmer,
A catastrophic spill of more than a million tons of acid waste at a copper mine in Zambia has become a geopolitical flashpoint as China and America jockey for minerals and economic influence.
A torrent of mining waste cascaded across farmland and into the river system when a storage dam, at Sino-Metals Leach Zambia’s facility near Kitwe partially burst in February.
As the waste from known as tailings flooded from the Chinese state-owned mine into the Mwambashi and Kafue rivers, the acidity killed large quantities of fish and ruined crops.
The mine and government have since been accused of downplaying the scale of the escape near Kitwe in Copperbelt province.
Beijing has also been infuriated by what it calls American interference and criticised what it called “ignorant and ill-intentioned manipulation by a certain country’s ambassador” after the United States embassy said it was moving staff out of the area for their safety. The embassy estimated the breach may be the sixth worst disaster of its kind.
The tussle comes with Zambia at the centre of economic rivalry between the superpowers in Africa. China has poured billions into the country in recent decades and Zambia is trying to sharply increase copper production with the help of Chinese investment.
America is meanwhile trying to make the country a hub of its new Lobito rail corridor to channel copper and cobalt from central Africa to the Atlantic coast of Angola.
“China and America are competing, so that is why China is so angry about the criticism. China does not want to be exposed,” said one senior Zambian official.
The Sino-Metals Leach (SML) Zambia mine apologised after the spill and along with the government estimated around 50,000 tonnes of waste had escaped. The mine said it would clean up and compensate farmers.
An environmental clean-up firm hired to assess the impact later put the total at closer to 1.5 million tonnes and found toxic chemicals left behind such as arsenic and heavy metals. The firm warned that the consequences for future generations of Zambians could “be severe and long-lasting”.
SML fired the firm over alleged contractual breaches and said it disagreed with its methodology. Both SML and the government rejected the firm’s pollution estimates.
Chilekwa Mumba, a Zambian environmental activist, alleged the compensation offered had been “basically a joke”.
Some payments have reportedly been as low as a few hundred dollars.
He said: “That is not anything that we can call compensation considering what had happened.”
One compensated farmer, who declined to be named in case it jeopardised his payout, said: “On the day the acid came, we were by our house and we noticed a strong scent. We walked down to the field and found brown water everywhere and dead fish and frogs.”
“Most of the aquatic life was dead. Still now, there’s no fish.”
Zambia now says the acidity has passed and the water is safe to drink. The government has urged people not to panic.
Beijing has said the mine has “actively shouldered responsibility” by cleaning up and paying compensation “and the relevant work has achieved significant results”.