Environmental experts have questioned how the country will this time around manage to get maximum benefits from the proposed mine when it’s a known fact that successive governments including the current government have failed to get maximum benefits from the existing large scale mines on the Copperbelt and North-Western provinces.
As the debate rages on following revelations that the immediate former ruling party PF government had approved the opening an open pit mine in the lower Zambezi national park, and the current ruling UPND government’s decision to go ahead and implement the historical approval, more environmental experts are speaking out, calling on the government to halt the planned mining.
The lower Zambezi National park which was founded in 1983 and covers an area of over 4,000 square kilometers, lies on the north bank of the Zambezi River in south-eastern Zambia, is bringing out the old age debate between the huge profits to be gained from mining against the environmental considerations, which the tourism sector somehow managed to better take care off.
An Environmental expert Timoth Kamuzhu Phri in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT stated that Zambia Environmental Management Agency – ZEMA and Minister of Environment should reconsider the decision as the area has resources that have been found to be of huge ecological significance.
Phiri told ZBT that mining is okay in places that are not protected but putting it in areas that are protected like a national park will mean degrading the ecosystem.
“There is an argument raised that not a lot is being done by tourism for the locals, that is not a lie it is true but that problem can only be solved if we involve more local people in tourism and empower them.” Phiri stated.
When asked if locals are better benefiting from the current tourism activities in the national park compared to what the promoters of the proposed mine are pledging, Phiri noted that it does not call for a mine to realize that the Zambian people are not benefiting from tourism but something that can be dealt with even without a mine.
He said bringing a mine is an economic activity which will bring in more damage than tourism would ever cause.
The environmental expert said even the late founding President Kenneth Kaunda knew that minerals were there, but did a cost benefit analysis and found out that a national park had more benefits than extraction of minerals. Phiri is of the view that a social, economic and biophysical implications have to be taken into account before establishments of businesses in such places.
Until 1983 when the area was declared a national park, the area was the private game reserve of Zambia’s president which resulted in the park being protected from the ravages of mass tourism and remains one of the few pristine wilderness areas left in Africa.
Phiri stated that it is worrying to note that the current government has decided to go ahead to open an open pit mining project in such an area which is also the world heritage site.
Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane had announced that the UPND led government plans to expand copper production from the current 850,000 tons per annum to 3 million tons per annum in ten (10) years. He has however not given a breakdown on which mines, timeline milestones or specific investment pledges on how this target will be realized.
