The coronavirus in Africa could completely overwhelm healthcare systems neglected for years. Yet Zambia has refrained from imposing the type of far-reaching lockdown seen in nations such as South Africa.
The Zambian government has announced that construction of the open-pit Kangaluwi copper mine in Lower Zambezi National Park won’t proceed, following strong backlash against the project’s prior approval.
As well as threatening to dry up waterways and natural sites such as the Victoria Falls, the drought in Zambia is forcing millions to turn to wild fruits, roots and poisonous plants to survive hunger.
Four southern African nations are threatening to withdraw from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species after their attempts to relax restrictions on the ivory trade were rejected.
A large dam along the Luangwa River in Zambia would have posed a serious risk to local people and wildlife, leading hundreds of thousands to oppose it. A call to which the government responded by halting plans to build it.
Robust campaigning by animal rights activists has led Zambia to cancel plans to kill thousands of hippos, whose population in the country is one of the largest in the world.
Zambia wants to allow culling of hippos in the Luangwa River, and safari companies are already advertising to hunters. Though there is no evidence of overpopulation, 250 hippos a year could be killed.
Due to a prolonged drought in Zambia, maize production could fall from the current 3.6 million tonnes to 1.8-2 million tonnes this crop season if the current dry spell which the nation is experiencing continues.
A century of lead mining in Kabwe, officially abandoned two decades ago, has poisoned millions of people and left the city with deadly concentrations of toxic lead in the soil and water.
Zambian villagers claim a giant copper mine under UK-based Vedanta has polluted their waters. They’ve now won the right to have their case heard in British courts.
