CONSERVATION NEWS
This may be the most lead polluted place on Earth. Is there any hope?
The site of a former lead and zinc mine in Kabwe, Zambia. Thirty years after the closure of the mine, the land remains highly contaminated — and artisanal miners continue to work here, exposing themselves daily to dangerously high levels of lead.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
By Julie Bourdin / Photos by Tommy Trenchard
In a soft, faltering voice, her large brown eyes staring absently ahead, Winfrida Besa repeats "A-B-C-D" over and over as she tries to sing the ABCs. With her thin, hollow face and slight frame, 7-year-old Winfrida looks much younger than she really is.
"Winfrida doesn't go to school. She would just leave the classroom and wander off, and we worry she would get lost," sighs her grandfather, Bobby Besa, 60. The little girl was born "normal," he says, but soon she was exhibiting a constellation of disturbing symptoms that are familiar to residents of Kabwe, Zambia. The diagnosis came after blood testing at the local clinic: Lead poisoning.
This city of almost 300,000 people, 80 miles north of Zambia's capital of Lusaka, was identified by a 2022 U.N. report as a "sacrifice zone" — one of the most polluted places on the planet. Between 1906 and 1994, Kabwe was home to Broken Hill, one of the world's largest lead and zinc mines. For decades, highly toxic lead particles were blown across town, carried by the wind and the waterways, contaminating the soil in courtyards, playgrounds and on dirt roads where speeding trucks raise plumes of dust.
2017 Portraits of Zambia Calendar - Proceeds support Nsefu Wildlife
Help fight poaching by purchasing our new 2017 Portraits of Zambia calendar, a celebration of South Luangwa's wildlife.
All photos by Faith M. Walker.
Our new 2017 Portraits of Zambia calendar is a celebration of South Luangwa's wildlife. All photos were taken at and around Zikomo Safari Camp in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. All proceeds go to Nsefu Wildlife Conservation Foundation (NWCF), which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting poaching and funding community projects to retrain local villagers in alternative means of employment.
Photos were taken by Faith M. Walker. To purchase these or other photos, please visit www.walkerspawtery.com.
To purchase the 2017 Portraits of Zambia calendar, please email Coe Lewis at Coe@Nsefuwildlife.com. She will take your order and mail to you. *The price includes the mailing cost.
*Price: $25 (U.S.)
Take a look at the beautiful photos in our calendar. Let each image inspire you to help us protect the amazing wildlife in Zambia.