Kabwe, the second largest city in Zambia and for years a center of Africa’s mining industry, is now one of the world’s most poisoned cities. From 1904 to 1994, the town was home to the largest lead mine and smelter on the continent. The government-owned corporation, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), operated without pollution controls for most of its life.
In 1994, the mine was declared worked out and the smelter began to close down. Since then the residents have struggled to reinvent the town as an agricultural market center. To supplement their meager incomes, people sift and tunnel through the mine spoils searching for lead scraps. Many neighborhoods are built on these spoils, and the dust is a constant presence.
Not coincidentally, the town also is afflicted with a disease that the townspeople have been led to believe is a local strain of malaria. This mysterious disease is killing children and adults by the thousands, sickening thousands more each year. Health-care worker Kay-Valentine Musakanya was certain that lead from the mines was causing the illnesses. He organized a community group to test for lead in soils and blood to confirm his suspicions, and he has worked tirelessly to get a response from the mining company and the government.
Lead is one of the most potent neurotoxins. It is particularly harmful to infants and children and can even cross the mother’s placenta, putting unborn infants at risk. Normal blood levels are less than 10 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dl). Once blood levels exceed 40 µg/dl, symptoms of acute lead poisoning become apparent, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. At 70 or above, it is considered a medical emergency that requires hospitalization. Levels exceeding 120 can cause permanent brain damage and even death. However, even small increases in lead blood levels have been linked with kidney dysfunction, anemia, osteoporosis and serious neurological effects, such as declining intelligence, attention deficit disorders, and impairment of hearing, reaction times and coordination. The symptoms described above match those described by the victims of Kabwe’s illness.
One of the most common pathways for lead poisoning is inhalation or ingestion of contaminated soil. Naturally occurring levels of lead in soil are normally less than 20 parts per million (ppm). The United States’ regulatory levels for lead concentrations in soil are 2,000 ppm for industrial sites, 400 ppm for residential sites, and 200 ppm for agricultural sites.
When the Kabwe mine was closed in 1994, lead concentrations measured in the soil closest to the smelter typically ranged from 20,000 to 100,000 ppm, or 1,000 to 5,000 percent higher than U.S. regulatory levels. Some samples had lead concentrations as high as 245,000 ppm.
In 1995, soil samples were collected from residential yards and surrounding areas. Lead levels ranged from 4,000 to 38,000 ppm. Lead concentrations in samples collected near the mine’s waste water canal, which ran through the heart of several housing districts, exceeded 250,000 ppm. Furthermore, airborne lead levels in residential communities near the abandoned mine often exceeded 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter (the U.S. limit is 0.02). An estimated 50,000 of Kabwe’s 250,000 inhabitants live in areas of very high lead levels.
During the operation of the lead mine and smelter from 1908 to 1994, Kabwe was a typical African company town. ZCCM ran the mine and all of the city’s services and health facilities. From 1989 to 1994, children and mine employees visiting local clinics and hospitals run by ZCCM were given blood tests to check for lead without the knowledge of the patient and without disclosure of the results. Most of the children tested at 60 to 100 µg/dl, with levels up to 400. Children with levels over 90 were often checked into the hospital for chelation treatment, which helps the body flush heavy metals. They were then released without being advised of the cause of the problem or the reason for the treatments.
In Kabwe, the most common pathways of lead poisoning are believed to be inhalation or ingestion of a airborne particles when the smelter was still in operation, dust from gardens and general play areas, household dust, food grown in contaminated soil, and dust created as people search the mine spoils for lead scraps.
As Kabwe has worked to transform itself from a mining town into an agricultural center, poverty has increased dramatically. Families are struggling to keep meager meals on the table and nutrition has suffered as a result. Poor nutrition increases the consequences of lead ingestion and makes the treatment of lead poisoning more difficult. In addition, poverty and powerlessness make it much harder for Kabwe’s residents to challenge the government and ZCCM.
Thanks to the work of Kay-Valentine Musakanya, the people of Kabwe have been able to make dramatic headway. Musakanya, a former health care worker for ZCCM, founded the Kabwe Environmental and Rehabilitation Foundation, or KERF to gather evidence of lead poisoning and educate the community about the lethal environment in which they live. One of KERF’s main goals is to create the leverage necessary to force the Zambian government into adopting an acceptable environmental remediation plan.
KERF received grants in 2002 and 2003 from Global Greengrants Fund to purchase equipment to assess lead levels in soil, air, water, and blood. With this equipment and countless hours of work, KERF has collected scores of environmental samples to determine the exact extent of the lead contamination. Their work began to pay off in April of 2003 when the World Bank approved a loan of $40 million to ZCCM to provide the majority of funding for an initiative known as the Copperbelt Environment Project, or CEP.
About $15 million of this loan is expected to be used in Kabwe. Work is expected to begin sometime in 2004, and will include covering Kabwe’s mine dumps with vegetation, or even capping them with concrete, to prevent lead dust from being blown across the town. Medical workers also will need to be adequately educated and equipped to manage lead-related health concerns in the city.
A hotspot for the cleanup efforts is the township of Katondo, which lies in the heart of Kabwe and is adjacent to a canal, mentioned above, that was once used to carry toxic waste from the lead mine pits. Toxic and lead runoff from the canal has drastically raised lead levels in the blood of area residents. During the 2002 rainy season the canal flooded, spilling several years of toxic waste, silt, and rubbish into neighborhoods.
In September 2003, ZCCM, seeking to prevent another flood of the canal, instructed 2,000 Katondo residents to move out of their homes so the canal could be dredged. No housing alternatives or financial compensation were provided to the residents.