A court in
It's a busy morning in Chowa township in Kabwe, which on the surface looks like an ordinary Zambian town.
But rights experts and lawyers say Kabwe is one of the areas in the world most polluted by lead poisoning.
Rachel Kutayaya said her three boys, aged 12, 14, and 16, were sickened by lead but she's unemployed and can't afford treatment.
Kutayaya struggles to feed her kids with the
She said her children's IQs have been affected. In school, Kutayaya says, they do not focus well, so their performance is poor. She says one of them often has stomach problems and blames lead poisoning.
They've been seeking a class action lawsuit since 2020 for lead poisoning at the mine against mining giant
The lawsuit was filed in
The lawsuit alleges the victims' lead poisoning was due to the mining corporation's pollution at the mine from the 1920s to 1970s and is seeking reparations.
Spokesperson Sibusiso Tshabala said
The Zambian government and various entities ran the mine from 1974 until it was closed in 1994.
Tshabala called the lawsuit opportunistic and implied a commercial motive in singling out
Kabwe community representative
"What we are looking for is the families that are affected to be compensated and probably the company that started mining here in Kabwe to provide remedial measures so that the areas where this lead poisoning is coming from could be treated," he said.
The South African court ruled on
Lawyers for
It said, "corporate legal accountability and access to justice for the Kabwe lead poisoning victims has been outstanding for generations and is of paramount importance."
The rights group says soil in the townships surrounding the Kabwe mine has concentrations of lead more than 150 times higher than the recommended international standard.
Since 2019, the Zambian government supports a
Gideon Ndalama is the National Coordinator for the Zambia Mining Environmental Remediation and Improvement project.
He said more than 10,000 women and children have been treated so far.
"We procured lead test kits to support the interventions as well as lead diagnostic kits that are being used in four health centers in Kabwe," said Ndalama.
A March report by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment report listed Kabwe as one of the world's 50 most polluted places on earth.
It said 95% of children in Kabwe suffered elevated blood lead levels caused by lead mining and smelting, which can cause impair brain development and cause blindness, paralysis, and death.
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