Chiefs launch ‘Save Zambezi’ campaign
By KELVIN KACHINGWE
CONCERNED that its people, wildlife and natural heritage are under unparalled and imminent threat from mining activities, 17 chiefdoms in
the Zambezi basin from
Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have come together to call for urgent action, that of saving the Great Zambezi.
The 17 chiefdoms from the three countries have been calling for support from their respective presidents, ministers and local governments and the international community.
The chiefs from Zambia are Chieftainess Chiyaba of Kafue, Chief Chipepo of Siavonga, Chief Simaamba of Siavonga, Chief Sinambwe of Siavonga, Chief Mphukaof Luangwa, Chief Mburuma of Luangwa, Chief Sinazongwe of Sinazongwe and Chief Munyumbwe of Gwembe.
The chiefs contend that the proposed projects by Zambezi Resources, Albidon Mining, Glencore International, Rio Tinto, Omega, and Africa Resources, are threatening their existence and traditional way of life.
“They must not proceed in their efforts to develop uranium, copper and gold mines near the shores of our great water sources. Uranium mining could result in the displacement of thousands of our people…people who willingly moved in the 1940’s to create our precious national park, and were then required to move again for the building of the Kariba Dam.
“This is notice to these companies…we’ll not be moved from our traditional lands and we’ll protect them from unsustainable foreign development. Our beautiful Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia’s greatest natural heritage, and the neighboring Chiawa Partnership Park which is a model joint project between community and leaseholders, are under threat by possible open pit and underground copper mining,” the chiefs say in their letter of notice.
Further, they say the possible excavations also pose tremendous threat to the UNESCO world heritage site of Mana Pools in Zimbabwe and the health and livelihood of hundreds of thousands of their peoples downstream, who rely on the Zambezi’s water all the way to the Indian Ocean. Their immense population of animals, from elephants to the smallest fish, are also at risk.
They also argue that the fragile eco-system of their escarpment and proximity of their waters to the mining sites makes “responsible” mining impossible. Although their people are poor, they say they would rather choose to remain so if their only choice is unwanted.
“We’ll not accept development that puts our children at risk. Potential accidents threaten Southern Africa’s most important lifeline and the traditional domain of our people for thousands of years… Already the poaching of elephants in our parks has tripled since mining exploration roads came in and accidents have been reported even in the initial exploratory stages of development.
“Already the Chongwe River ran red like blood with the unexplained run off from exploration. Already our boys working in open uranium pits with no safeguards are developing illnesses we have not seen before,” they said.
The issue of the Zambezi basin has increasingly become of greater interest in recent times. In fact, this is what led to the study titled State of the Environment in the Zambezi Basin 2000, which marked the first time that an assessment of a single ecosystem has been undertaken and reported upon in Southern Africa.
Handsomely produced and illustrated, the study looked at the shared resources of the Zambezi basin, taking into account ecological, social, and economic issues. These three factors are critical to achieving a state of sustainability in the Zambezi Basin.
The basin has been described as the focal point in Southern Africa in terms of energy, wildlife, biodiversity, wetlands and water resources, conservation, pollution concerns and tourism. Many countries stand to lose a great deal if it is not managed. Sustainable management of the basin is therefore crucial not only to the basin states but to the rest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as well.
The study was a joint enterprise between SADC, the World Conservation Union, Zambezi River Authority, the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
On bio-diversity, the report observed the emergence of cash economies, the opening up of land for agriculture, mining and settlements not only contributed to the over-exploitation of land, animal and plant species but also increased biodiversity loss. The need to arrest the loss of biodiversity is especially important in the basin where people depend on biological resources to a greater extent than elsewhere.
“Biodiversity loss in Southern Africa has been a consequence of human development, as species-rich woodlands and forests have been converted to relatively species-poor farmlands and plantations.
“However, the number of threatened species could be higher as the full extent of the region’s species diversity is unknown.
“There is a serious lack of species inventories and other baseline data that are fundamental for monitoring biodiversity trends,” the report read in part.
Last year as well, participants in the third Zambezi Basin-wide Stakeholders Forum held in November in Falls town in Zimbabwe agreed that the loss of wetlands in the Zambezi River Basin has become an urgent problem.
“Wetlands are crucial to all forms of life in the Zambezi Basin, yet they are not appreciated the way they should be,” said Tabeth Chiuta, the water programme coordinator of the World Conservation Union.
“Today, only 7.6 per cent of the entire Zambezi Basin is covered with wetlands. This percentage is on the decrease because people are unaware of the importance of having and protecting wetlands,” she added.
Chiuta was speaking at the stakeholders forum, which was held between November 27 to 29 last year and organised by the Zambezi Action Plan.
This initiative was set up by SADC to push for sustainable use of the basin’s resources.
The hope is that better use of resources could lead to greater socio-economic development in the eight states that encompass the area: Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Zambezi Basin is the fourth largest river basin in Africa, measuring 1.3 million square kilometres and is home to some 40 million people from 30 ethnic groups.
Wetlands encompass a variety of landscapes, including reef and mud flats, mangroves, estuaries, fresh and saltwater marshes, and swamps.
Siavonga, which is one of the areas falling within the Zambezi Basin, has in recent times tried to put itself on the map with business and industry coming together to start a website intended to inform visitors and prospective investors about the town.
It provides information on tourist facilities and activities available, business opportunities, information on local authorities and procedures, the chiefdoms and the people of Siavonga and places of interest to visitors.
The web-site is primarily sponsored by the business community, third party advertising and donations. Situated on the north shore of Lake Kariba, Siavonga, the second largest tourist destination in Southern Province after Livingstone, it prides itself in the lake and the Kariba Dam Wall, towering 118 metres above the Zambezi River, as it main attraction.
At the time of construction in the 1950s, the Kariba Dam was known as one of the engineering wonders of the world and was once the largest man-made lake in the world.
“If indeed the dam wall was considered one of the ‘engineering wonders’ of the world, the lake itself can then be considered as one of the ‘engineered wonders’ of nature. Sadly much of the big game on the Zambian side of the lake has disappeared, although these can still be found west of the Kota Kota Peninsular,” reads one line on Siavonga-zambia.com.
The lake is host to a wide variety of fish species including the mighty Zambezi tiger, various species of tilapia and nembwe, and of course the colossal vundu and barbel. Birdlife is also prolific with Zambia’s national bird the fish eagle in abundance. Hippopotamus and the Nile crocodile are also frequently seen and occasionally small mammals are evident.
As the lake was flooded, the forest land in the valley was inundated with water. Much of the forest can still be seen rising above the vast waters of the lake and after being 50 years submerged, the trees still stand as monuments to the history of what once was the Zambezi valley.
At sunset, these monuments create some of the most breathtaking scenery on the African continent. The lake, coupled with some of Africa’s unrivalled landscapes make an incredible canvas for the artist and photographer alike.
What Lake Kariba lacks in wildlife, it certainly makes up in its scenic beauty, birdlife, lake activities, and affordable accommodation.
It is largely this, that the chiefs want preserved.
Labels: CHIEFS, MINING, NATURAL RESOURCES
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Let's make better use of resources
By Editor
Thursday April 24, 2008 [04:00]
A lot can be done with very little money if we are honest in what we are doing. If we are honest in what we are doing, it is much easier to accomplish the task in the most cost effective way. We have no doubt the achievements recorded in Kasaka, St Patrick, Chindaba and Munjele schools in Monze district are first and foremost because the people who were in charge of these projects were honest men and women. And because they were honest, they were able to use the ‘little funds’ given to them by the Norwegian government in an efficient, effective and orderly manner.
What the Matantala Rural Integrated Enterprise project teaches us is that we can achieve more if we are responsible in the use of any money made available to us through aid and other disbursements.
Clearly, this shows that it is what we make out of what we have, and not what we are given, that separates us from others.
We must see to it that all our people constantly bear in mind that ours is a poor country with very limited resources. To move our people out of poverty will need many years of intense effort, which will include, among other things, the effort to practice economy and combat waste, misuse and theft of public resources. In short, we will need the policy of building up our country through diligence and frugality.
Diligence and frugality should be practiced in running all public institutions - and even private ones. The principle of diligence and frugality should be observed in everything.
The principle of economy should be one of the basic principles of the economics of a poor country like ours struggling to improve the lives of its people. It will take several years to make Zambia prosperous. Even then, we will still have to observe the principle of diligence and frugality. But it is now and in the coming few years that we must particularly advocate diligence and frugality, that we must pay special attention to economy.
Wherever we happen to be, we must treasure the limited resources we have, and must not take a short view and indulge in wastefulness and extravagance, especially with public resources. Wherever we are, we must bear in mind the many years to come, our protracted war against poverty, disease, ignorance and backwardness that must be won. On the one hand, never be wasteful or extravagant; on the other, actively expand production. The lesson is there – the Matantala Rural Integrated Enterprise project – and attention must be called to it.
In order to speed up development, we must do our utmost, take resolute measures against anyone wasting, misusing or stealing public resources and pay attention to thrift and economy.
Thrift should be the guiding principle in our government expenditure. It should be made clear to all government officials and workers that corruption and waste are great crimes.
Our campaigns against corruption are starting to show some positive results, but further efforts are required.
A dangerous tendency has shown itself among many of our political leaders and key government officers – an unwillingness to share the joys and hardships of the masses, a concern for personal gain and firm.
This is very bad. And to see the extent of what we are talking about, one just needs to look at the London High Court judgement and read for oneself how a president of this country and very senior and key government officers plundered public resources to enrich themselves. And if one also reads the proceedings in the plunder cases that are before our courts of law, one will start to feel something had seriously gone wrong in our country, in the way public resources were managed and used.
One way of overcoming this is to simplify our organisations and the way they are administered and ensure that diligence and frugality is practiced.
And when one reads the proceedings of corruption cases, cases of abuse involving senior officers of our armed force, it is clear that there is need to reform our armed forces and change the way they are managed and the way they conduct their business.
We believe that production by the armed force for its own support will not only improve the armed forces’ living conditions but it will also lighten the burden on the people, thereby making it possible to further expand the armed forces. In addition, it will have many immediate positive side effects.
It will improve relations between officers and men. Officers and men will start to work together in production and become like brothers. It will improve the armed forces’ attitude to labour and loafer ways will be overcome. It will also help strengthen discipline. Far from weakening discipline in a military life, labour discipline in production actually strengthens it.
There will be improved relations between the armed force and the people. Once an armed force begins to keep house for itself, encroachments upon the property of the people seldom or never occur. As the army and the people exchange labour and help each other in production, the friendship between them is strengthened. And there will be less grumbling in the armed forces about the government and improved relations between the two.
This will be an impetus to the development efforts of our people. Once the armed forces engage in production, the need for the government and other organisations to do like wise becomes more obvious, and they do so more energetically. Those who produce rarely engage in wastefulness or other misuse of resources.
Diligence and frugality has to start at the highest level possible – the presidency. If the presidency does not practice economy, is extravagant and wasteful as we saw with the previous presidency, corruption and other abuses become the order of the day.
This presidency, the current presidency, doesn’t seem to be extravagant and stands better to enforce higher standards of thriftiness. But it doesn’t seem to be achieving the levels of thriftiness and economy it can easily achieve. Why? A number of factors can account for this – poor personnel, supervision, monitoring, and organisational setup or framework, among others.
Stealing or abusing public resources in order to enrich oneself will only lead to loss (Prov. 22:16). It’s time we embraced the culture of responsibility and accountability, and committed ourselves with dedication and sacrifice in working for the common good, not only for the current generation, but also for the future generations. When people think only of themselves, when they misuse public resources and apply them to themselves at the expense of the general public, there is a serious problem.
Let’s heed the advice of our Norwegian friend, Ambassador Tore Gjos, and get rid of bad governance and corruption in order for us to achieve meaningful flow of development throughout our country. Let’s make best use of the resources we have. They may not be enough, but if applied in a diligent manner they, may take us somewhere away from poverty and despair.
Labels: NATURAL RESOURCES, TORE GJOS
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Gjos urges Zambians to use resources effectively
By Pride Bwalya in Monze
Thursday April 24, 2008 [04:00]
THE Zambian government and its people must ensure effective management of resources for the country's economic development, Norwegian Ambassador Tore Gjos has advised. Ambassador Gjos, during a courtesy call on Monze district commissioner Joyce Nondo, said Zambia had enough resources that could be used for various projects especially in the development of education and health sectors in rural areas. He commended the government over the new tax regime for the mines, which took effect on April 1, 2008, saying the revenue raised could benefit and improve the lives of Zambians.
Ambassador Gjos said the government should be encouraged to ensure that local resources were put to good use for the country's economic development. He further urged the government to get rid of bad governance and corruption in order to achieve a meaningful flow of development countrywide.
He said poor governance and corruption should be fought at all levels to ensure sustainable development.
Ambassador Gjos, who toured Kasaka, St. Patrick, Chidamba and Munjele schools that were constructed and rehabilitated by Matantala Rural Integrated Enterprise Project in Monze and Mazabuka with funding from the Norwegian government, said he was impressed with the difference the little funds donated by the Norwegian government had made.
He noted that a good number of schools had been rehabilitated and new ones constructed.
Ambassador Gjos said the government must consider using the Matantala Rural Integrated Project as a best case pilot project and replicate it to other parts of the country to ensure significant development.
And Nondo said the Matantala project had contributed effectively to sensitisation and capacity building in terms of community mobilisation of resources and involvement in development.
Nondo said since inception in Monze, the project had brought about positive impact on community members by improving their livelihood through hard work.
She said community members were able to assess themselves and determine their areas of need in terms of development.
Nondo thanked the Norwegian government for funding the project because it played a crucial role in the development of education and health sectors.
Labels: NATURAL RESOURCES, NORWAY, TORE GJOS
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