THE World Bank has partnered with the Kabwe Municipal Council in a bid to come up with a remedy for lead pollution in mine area townships.
Council Public Relations Manager Anna Mumba said officials from World Bank recently held talks to discuss remedy measures to be undertaken in Kabwe.
Ms Mumba said the World Bank is ready to finance programmes aimed at addressing the lead pollution in the district.
She said the council has brought on board the ministry of Health, Education and Forestry officers on board to address the pollution situation.
“The World Bank is partnering with the local authority in the fight against lead pollution and will in the next few weeks finance a number of programs aimed at mitigating the effects of lead on mine area residents”, Ms Mumba said.
Ms Mumba said the forestry department has been engaged to look into the greening aspect as well as planting trees that would reduce dust in the affected areas.
She said lead is contained in the dust and ensuring that the environment is covered in vegetation would reduce the lead content.
“We are coming up with measures to mitigate the effects of lead on the residents in the most affected townships through the planting of trees and grass to ensure that the soil is covered with vegetation to avoid dust”, Ms Mumba.
Ms Mumba added that the council would also be carrying out sensitision programmes for the residents on the effects and migration of lead pollution.
She named the affected townships as Chowa, Makululu, Railways and Mine areas that are in the mining area.
Partnering with the same devil that has vested interest in these selfsame mines polluting us!!
I suspect that this lady has little understanding of the measures proposed. How could the world bank discuss measures to deal with a major health hazard through a council lacking capacity? Kabwe council do not even have a master plan for the town. The contamination of soil, water and vegetation has spread across a wide area which needs the involvement of adequately trained experts in public health, environmental studies and town planning. There are examples of such contamination having been handled well in countries like France. There are also bad examples like India, where the World Bank has not done anything to suggest a decent level of knowledge on these issues.