Eighteen hundred Zambian villagers claiming to have had their water supplies polluted and their health affected by a giant mining company’s subsidiary have won the right to have their case heard in the British courts rather than in Zambia. Vedanta, which is headquartered in London, had argued strongly in the high court that the villagers’ case against them and their subsidiary, KCM, should be heard in Zambia, where the alleged pollution took place near the town of Chingola and the giant Nchanga copper mine. But high court judge Sir Peter Coulson dismissed the multinational’s claims, saying he feared that villagers would not get justice in their own country because they would not be able to afford lawyers, and because the Zambian legal system would not be able to cope with such a large and long trial.