Devastating toxic spill seen as test of whether African countries will stand up to ChinaAli Ngwane / BBCFarmers like Mary Penge, 41, say their crop soil has been contaminated by the toxic spillEven before the dam collapsed, Lamec did not feel safe working at the copper mine."If our work protective gear gets damaged, it is not always replaced," he tells us. "We have to take a risk and use it again."He is talking to the BBC in a car on a quiet backroad near a village in northern Zambia, too nervous to speak to us in public or to use his real name, for fear that speaking to the press might cost him his livelihood. When he turned up for his shift one day in February, he tells us, he found that one of the dams at the Chinese-owned mine had been closed. The tailings dam - used to store toxic by-products from the copper mining process, including heavy metals like arsenic, mercury and lead - had collapsed into a tributary connected to the Kafue, Zambia's longest river and a major drinking water source. At least 50,000 tonnes of acidic debris spilled out into the surrounding waterways and farmland, according to the government. Some environmentalists, however, claim as much as 1.5 million tonnes was spilled, with one expert saying a full clean-up could take longer than a decade. The spill has killed the fish around the towns of Chambishi and Kitwe, made the water undrinkable and destroyed crops, farmers have told the BBC. There are fears that, now the rainy season has started, heavy metals still sitting in the mud will further infiltrate the land and waterways, causing a second wave of pollution.
