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The Acton Institute for Policy Analysis Centre (AIPAC) has called on the government to impose immediate and severe penalties on Sino Leach Metals and appoint independent, internationally recognized environmental experts to oversee remediation efforts.
Executive Director, Solomon Ngoma, raised concerns over the findings of the recent report by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency, saying it belatedly validates early warnings issued by the U.S. Embassy regarding environmental damage caused by Sino Leach Metals.
In a statement issued in Lusaka on Sunday, Ngoma said that although the report acknowledges a serious threat to public health, it grossly understated the true magnitude of the crisis.
He stressed the need to hold the company financially liable for the full scale of cleanup, arguing that it should not be allowed to manage the process itself.
“Between February and April 2025, globally recognized experts provided detailed analyses shared directly with senior members of the Zambian government on the scale of pollution and its devastating consequences,” Ngoma said.
He noted that instead of acting on these warnings, the government dismissed them and commissioned a consultant with no serious expertise to conduct stylized assessments ten months after pollutants had already settled into riverbeds and spread downstream.
Ngoma said Sino Leach Metals should face restrictions on further mining ventures until it demonstrated compliance with global environmental standards.
“Sino Metals’ current efforts — merely scooping up detritus without proper sequestration or safeguards — do nothing to prevent ongoing contamination of groundwater, airborne particles, and community exposure,” he said.
He warned that Zambians faced the prospect of long-term respiratory illnesses, cancers, and irreversible damage to their livelihoods if decisive action is not taken.
Read More: Government seeks legal guidance on Kafue River pollution by Sino Leach Metals
Ngoma described the situation as one of the most egregious cover-ups in recent memory, saying Zambians would bear the cost with their health and lives while Sino Leach Metals continued expanding into new ventures without accountability.
“Unlike notable Western firms, Sino Metals is not even required to provide ZCCM with an ownership stake, further exploiting Zambia’s resources,” Ngoma said, referring to ZCCM Investments Holdings.
He emphasized the need for Zambia to strengthen its regulatory framework to ensure no polluter was ever again allowed to dictate the terms of its own accountability.
Ngoma added that even the limited ZEMA study confirmed a real threat but minimized the true scale of danger.
“A year after the spill, Sino Metals has actively suppressed legitimate findings of harm, yet the GRZ continues to entrust the polluter with responsibility for cleanup,” he said.
He argued that this was a fundamental error, noting that global precedent shows effective remediation required sophisticated expertise, not superficial measures.
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