Environmentalist concerned with unregulated sand mining amid construction boom

Lusaka City and the rest of urban […]

Lusaka City and the rest of urban areas across the country have seen a robust increase in infrastructure development, which has ultimately increased activities of sand mining and quarrying.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Environmentalist Maggie Mwape revealed the adverse impact of the activity, such as land degradation and pollution.

“We have noticed that from the extract sector, especially those that are near the river and wetlands, we have seen contamination of water sources,” she added.

Mwape bemoaned that despite the presence of the laws that speak to such activities, the implementation gaps are wide, and this has fueled illegality.

“We do have quite a big implementation gap in terms of enforcement, compliance, and poor coordination with local authorities.” She revealed that the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) is normally supposed to conduct quarterly inspections with local councils, but this has not been the case. Several international organizations have condemned the low-level implementation of the law and have advocated for stronger monitoring.

Mwape called for the decentralization of ZEMA in a bid to address the gaps in enforcement and monitoring across the country.

 “This will ensure that they have physical presence in all the provinces, there must be clear zoning and permission for sand and gravel, it should outline exactly where sand can be mined and there should be penalties for illegal practices.”

 She also called for an increase of the environmental protection funding, which is below 1% from the treasury. Lastly, Mwape called on the authorities to swing into action to bury mines that have been caused by the activity across Lusaka and parts of the country.

 “There should also be community engagement because the community gets affected, so they should do this before the licenses are issued,” she concluded.

Article by Samuel Mutale