Environmental Status

Rural Zambia mostly relies on dug out pits for waste disposal. Much of the solid waste produced in homes is not systematically collected for disposal. Most townships are full of historical mounds of waste, which still beg to be collected.

It is, however, worth noting that some community initiatives especially in urban areas have started to collect waste and manage it. One hopes that this will spread to all districts in Zambia otherwise waste management will continue to be a crisis. The situation has slowly being deteriorating with peri-urban and market areas highly affected.

Air Quality

In general terms throughout the country, ambient air quality is good except in areas where some kind of activities are taking place like quarrying, road repair and rehabilitation that occasionally generate dust in localized manner. Open air burning though illegal is practiced every year in various locations in Zambia. These tend, for a moment, to add to the poor quality of air by the introduction of various fire products into the atmosphere.

Much of the air quality determinations in Zambia are concentrated on the Copperbelt due to mining operations releasing Sulphur Dioxide to the atmosphere. Air quality on the Copperbelt in the mining areas is affected by discharges of Sulphur dioxide and particulates into the atmosphere. Effects of such emissions are observed in townships such as Kankoyo in Mufulira where vegetation growth is inhibited and corrosion of housing units is observed.

ECZ has annually monitored these emissions and set compliance limits with industry towards which industry such as the mines would work. Achievement is far from complete in that companies themselves have to acquire and install appropriate technology that would capture much of the sulphur dioxide gas emitted.

Sanitation

In Zambia sewerage has significantly been a problem of aged and outdated reticulation facilities and lack of capital injection into these facilities. Throughout the country, especially along the line of rail, blocked sewer pipes and dysfunctional sewer ponds are a common suite in some places of most districts. Notably, these are slowly being attended to through various donor projects that are carrying out rehabilitation work to permanently address these issues.

Land Use

ECZ participates in the Agricultural Lands Committee activities involved with the sub-divisions of agricultural land into smallholdings. This function mainly affects Algricultural Land outside the development plan or approved development planned areas country wide. Due to luck of awareness by most land owners who are currently not making reference to the Committee activities, this has been concentrated mainly in Lusaka and some parts of the Central Province. The status of natural resources remains threatened due to uncontrolled exploitation in various parts of the country. Notable in this regard is the commercial harvesting of indigenous timber in several forests leading to massive depletion of the resource.

Water Quality

The main issues of concern with water quality are discharges of effluent from the processing plants and sewerage plants to the aquatic environment. This is mainly concentrated in the urban environment in which these facilities are mostly found in Zambia. On the Copperbelt, the discharges of effluent with sediments from the mining industries continue to compromise the quality of water as well as threaten the Kafue river base due to sedimentation. This directly affects most water treatment plants through high expenses towards water treatment chemicals and process materials. Also due to poor and aged sewerage reticulation facilities in Zambia, it is common to see sewerage effluent discharging into the nearest aquatic environment. This is definitely not healthy.

Pesticides and Toxic Substances

A number of chemicals by nature are hazardous and toxic and hence must be handled with extreme caution. Exposure to Pesticides and Toxic Substances can be fatal if not handled carefully or can kill over a period of time or cause deformities. Pesticides and Toxic Substances poisoning can occur through inhaling, skin contact, and ingestion through the mouth. ECZ therefore monitors and keep track of what pesticides and Toxic Substances are coming into the country, who is handling them, how they are stored and sold, safety of the end user and protection of the environment.

However there are still many traders dealing in Pesticides and Toxic Substances and are unaware of the hazards and the need to take precautions to protect not only others but themselves and the environment. ECZ has put in place mechanisms to check illegal activities in Pesticides and Toxic Substances, such as inspections and more recently border controls. The regulation of the importation, distribution, storage, transportation and general management of Pesticides and Toxic Substances is another critical area of concern in Zambia.