HRW calls for health probe into Zambia's Kafue River acid spill

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on 11 September 2025 that residents living near the Sino-Metals Leach Zambia mine in Chambishi are still reporting health problems more than half a year after a tailings dam burst and sent acidic waste into the Kafue River watershed. The rights group is calling on the Zambian government and the mining company to fund and carry out a thorough, independent investigation into the spill's health effects.

The February 2025 breach released acidic effluent laden with heavy metals into a stream feeding the Kafue, killing fish and damaging crops and livestock along the waterway. HRW's research this year found that community members continue to describe headaches, coughing, diarrhoea, muscle cramps and sores on their legs, symptoms they attribute to contact with contaminated water and soil.

Children and pregnant women flagged as most at risk

HRW singled out children, older people and pregnant women as particularly vulnerable to prolonged exposure. The organisation cited water testing carried out in August 2025 that found 24 heavy metals present in local water sources, of which 16 exceeded World Health Organization safety thresholds, including nickel, lead, arsenic, zinc and uranium.

The report also noted that United States government personnel were pulled out of the area on 6 August 2025, with officials citing "hazardous and carcinogenic substances" posing both immediate and long-term health threats, a sign of how seriously the contamination is being treated by outside observers even as Zambian authorities maintain that the situation has stabilised.

A gap between official reassurance and lived experience

Zambian officials have said the pH of the water has normalised and that heavy-metal readings are trending downward following clean-up efforts, including the government's earlier decision to deploy the air force to drop lime into affected watercourses. HRW's findings point to a persistent gap between that official narrative and what residents say they are still experiencing on the ground, with some community members reporting that compensation promised by Sino-Metals for lost crops and livestock has been slow to arrive.

Wider implications

The call adds to pressure on both the Zambian government and Sino-Metals, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group, to be more transparent about the scale of contamination as Zambia pushes ahead with plans to sharply expand copper output. It also raises questions for other mining houses operating tailings facilities along the Copperbelt about the adequacy of monitoring and emergency response when dams fail.

Sources

• Human Rights Watch: Zambia: Acid Spill Jeopardizes Residents' Health, 11 Sept 2025