'Poisonous Profit: Lead Waste Mining and Children’s Right to a Healthy Environment in Kabwe, Zambia’ March 2025

Kabwe, the capital of Zambia’s Central Province, is one of the most lead-polluted places in the world because of contamination from a former industrial lead and zinc mine and smelter. Lead is a heavy metal that is highly toxic to humans when ingested or inhaled, particularly to children and women during pregnancy. The mine, which was established during the British colonial period and officially closed in 1994, has never been cleaned up. Decades of mining and smelting operations have resulted in an estimated 6.4 million tons of lead-bearing waste piles.

…Lead waste in Kabwe also presents a business opportunity: Numerous businesses are mining, trading, and processing lead waste at the former mine and its surroundings. Since mid-2023 and throughout 2024, businesses and individuals have removed large amounts of lead waste from the area and transported it to different locations in Kabwe, apparently for processing. Piles of dark, sandy material, several meters high, have started to appear by roadsides and outside processing plants. The piles are unfenced, and there are no signs warning that it is lead waste. Mining, removal, and transport of the waste has generated more lead dust and spread it to other parts of Kabwe, resulting in huge additional health risks for people who have already been exposed to toxic lead for decades. The government has failed to stop these highly dangerous activities and to protect people’s right to a healthy environment.

…This report documents the harmful mining, removal, and processing of lead-contaminated waste at and near the former Kabwe mine, and the impact this has on the rights to health and to a healthy environment, particularly as it affects the rights of children. Its findings are based primarily on research interviews, conducted between March 2022 and November 2024, with miners and community members in Kabwe, as well as government officials, experts, civil society groups, donor agencies, companies, and other key stakeholders in Kabwe and in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. Human Rights Watch also conducted remote research interviews, open-source research, geospatial analysis, and reviews of government, non-governmental, and expert documents, as well as responses to Human Rights Watch letters from the government and companies.