Vice President, Inonge Wina has directed the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit to dispatch a team of officers to Kitwe, Luanshya and Kalumbila, to conduct a rapid assessment on affected infrastructure in the three districts.
This follows a report by the Parliamentary Committee on Cabinet Affairs, which conducted a tour of disaster prone areas on the Copperbelt and North-western provinces.
In Luanshya district, the team will assess the Akatiti and Chonga tailing dams, which have posed a serious hazard to the community’s livelihoods, environment and vital installations.
The situation is an emergency and must be worked on before the onset of the 2019/2020 rainfall season in order to prevent a disaster.
The team will further conduct an assessment on the estimated 150 houses which have developed serious cracks on the walls in ChaChaCha Township in Kitwe district. The cracks on the bases and walls of the houses were caused by vibrations as a result of mine blasting from the mines managed by ZCCM-IH.
Mrs. Wina says the exercise in Kitwe is important in order to establish the extent of the damage, the number of affected households and the impact of the mining activities on the affected population.
The team will also conduct an assessment on the 84 houses which collapsed, affecting approximately 500 people in Tundula, Kalumbila district of North-western province. The collapse of the houses was due to heavy rainfall experienced during the last season. DMMU provided relief food and shelter to the affected households as an immediate response to the situation.
And DMMU National Coordinator Chanda Kabwe has assured the Vice President that the team will be on the ground by tomorrow, Saturday 8th to make sure the assessment is done in order to provide timely interventions on the findings on the ground
Mr. Kabwe said the assessments in the three districts will guide DMMU in coming up with appropriate intervention measures to mitigate the impacts of the respective damages in order to ensure no lives are lost and that normalcy is restored within the shortest possible time.
The team is composed of Officers from DMMU, Geological Survey, Department of Evaluators and Mines Safety. The assessment will take six days, upon which a report will be generated to guide the appropriate interventions.
This is contained in a statement issued to the media by DMMU Communications Officer Rachael Mupanga.
Where is this old hen Bo Inonge issuing these directives from her sick bed…I wonder why we are keeping her on payroll till 2021
She must send another one to Kankoyo where Mopani is killing our citizens with center
You must be a stinky cunt
Bo kuku miss you.lm sure your name is the FIC
I’m adept with the resource values of Akatiti, Chonga and Old dams in Luanshya. These dams were built during the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1980’s when:
***Processing technologies were “primitive”
***Ore grades were higher, and
***Plant operators were not as skilled
As a result, these dams contain fairly high grades of copper. In addition, the sulphide copper which reported as tailings then has now been oxidised. All of this makes the contained copper easily recoverable (by the technology applied at Tailings Leach Plant (TLP) in Chingola). With a knowledgeable person on board, GRZ can make money from these dumps!
the GRZ emergency is rather too late. the Dams mentioned have in the past Rainy seasons have washed away spilling the tailings into the Kafubu, Luanshya streams, and eventually the kafue River. the Farmers along these streams have complained that their fields and grazing lands have been submerged with fine silt. this environment Disaster is very difficult to eradicate.
ZCCM-IHL stopped the maintenance of these Dams more than 10 years ago. The London Court case involving Vedanta and Chingola Farmers is a small storm compared to the Damage done to the environment in these Luanshya areas.
MUST THESE FARMERS ALSO SUE ZCCM-IHL IN THE LONDON COURT?
Sorry, 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s