Africa-Press – Zambia. The Forest Department in Kapiri Mposhi has observed with concern the mushrooming of mining activities and increase in the dumping of solid waste into local forest reserves in the district.
District Forest Officer, Nicholas Chilo says the rapid increase in mining activities and dumping of solid waste in protected forests has resulted into increased forest destruction, air and water pollution.
Speaking during a meeting with Central Province Acting Permanent Secretary, Alfred Sakwiya, Mr. Chilo stated that there is a proliferation of both licensed and illegal mining entities conducting mining activities from protected forests especially from Chibwe National Forest in the area.
He disclosed that Kapiri Mposhi Town Council and some companies generating waste have been dumping solid waste in the forests due to lack of a designated dumping site in the district.
” The district has no designated legal dumping site for solid waste so most of the garbage is being taken to the forest reserves with the main affected being Chibwe National Forest right now because some companies and even the Council have been dumping waste there,” Mr Chilo said.
He called on the Council to find a suitable solid waste dumping site where waste can be managed using environmentally friendly mechanisms and further appealed to the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development to reconsider issuance of Mining licenses for mineral exploration in forest reserves.
” Right now there is a lot of both water pollution and air pollution as a result of dumping of waste and mining going on in our forests and it will defeat the purpose why these forests where reserved,” Mr Chilo said.
Meanwhile, Central Province Acting Permanent Secretary Alfred Sakwiya has directed the Department of Forestry and the Council to find a suitable location for proper disposal of solid waste in the district.
Mr Sakwiya has also challenged local authorities in the province to take an active interest in the waste recycling science as one of the alternative ways of managing solid waste in their respective jurisdictions.
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