The Town Built on Six Million Tonnes of Lead Waste

Kabwe was a British colonial lead and zinc mine for most of the twentieth century, and when it shut in 1994 it left roughly 6.4 million tonnes of lead-bearing waste in piles around the town, uncovered. Researchers estimate over 95% of children living near the former mine have elevated blood lead levels and about half urgently need treatment; lead at those concentrations permanently reduces cognitive development, and there is no undoing it later. Environment Africa's Zambian arm works in Kabwe on exposure and remediation alongside the Alliance for Lead-Free Kabwe, and in October 2025 it published a report with ACTSA, the London Mining Network and RAID setting out where responsibility for the clean-up actually lies, with case studies of mothers whose children are poisoned. World Bank-supported remediation has tested tens of thousands of residents, but campaigners say compensation is absent and, worse, that waste piles are now being re-mined.