Zambia govt. accused of colluding with company to ignore warnings from its own regulators and suppress civil society over pollution disaster
‘Zambia helped Chinese miner cover up pollution disaster, House committee finds’ 4 May 2026
Saddled by billions in crushing debt owed to Beijing, the Zambian government helped a Chinese-owned mining giant cover up one of the worst mining pollution incidents in the country’s history, according to an investigation by a U.S. House Select Committee on China. More than a year after a tailings dam owned by Sino-Metals collapsed and unleashed toxic sludge into the Kafue River, farmlands along the river valley are scorched, hundreds of people lack a source of clean drinking water and residents continue to live on land contaminated with heavy metals. The Zambian government, which owes $6.6 billion to the Chinese government and Chinese lenders, has held back from pressing Sino-Metals over the disaster, fearing retaliation from China, the committee said in a report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Sino-Metals is a subsidiary of state-owned China Nonferrous Mining.
The committee sent staff members to Zambia earlier this year to meet with government officials, mine executives and civil-society leaders. They established, among other things, that high-ranking government officials have frequently traveled to China since the disaster—not to demand accountability, but to solicit further investment. “The Zambian government is in a challenging position with China. China has tremendous political and financial influence in the country,” a spokesman for the committee told the Journal. “Sino-Metals is a Chinese state-owned company, so to criticize it is to criticize the Chinese government.”
The Zambian government colluded with Sino-Metals to ignore warnings from its own regulators about the risks at the company’s tailings dam, suppressed an independent probe and intimidated civil society organizations to prevent them from speaking with victims of the pollution, the committee said. The Chinese Embassy in Zambia couldn’t be reached for an immediate comment. A spokesman for Sino-Metals didn’t immediately comment. Zambia’s presidential spokesman declined to comment.