Unregulated mining waste contaminates communities in DR Congo

Carrying her daughter whose skin is covered with painful sores across a withering field, Helene Mvubu says she is among the many victims of toxic runoff polluting the mining hub of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The DRC supplies over 70 percent of the worlds cobaltcrucial for electric batteries and military technologydrawing major global powers, including China and the United States, into fierce competition for access. Yet human rights organisations warn that this scramble is leaving severe environmental destruction across the resource-rich nation.

Mvubu told AFP she has endured years of flooding from tainted water released by Congo Dongfang International Mining (CDM), a Chinese firm that processes copper and cobalt ore on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province. Her crops have withered, and her household water has become bitter and unsafe.

Her farmland lies directly beneath a steep slope leading down from the CDM site, which is wrapped in a high concrete wall guarded by security forces. Whenever it rains, streams of red-colored water burst from drainage points beneath the enclosure, though residents say the pollution has long been concealed during wet weather.

At the start of November, thousands of cubic meters of this reddish wastewater spilled from the facility over a two-day perioddespite clear skies. Local anger pushed authorities to suspend CDMs operations and launch an inquiry, an unusual move in a country where mining companies commonly act without consequences.

Investigators say CDM released the water early, expecting rainfall to mask the discharge. The company, however, attributed the spill to a rupture in a retention basin. Members of the investigative team insist the site has been contaminating its surroundings for years, though no official toxicity study has been disclosed.

Residents describe the health impacts themselves. Martiny, a fruit and vegetable seller, displayed peeling skin on her hands and feet, which she believes came from contact with highly acidic water. The November flood ruined her stock of dried fish, leaving it unfit for sale.

To pacify the community, CDM distributed bottled water and masks, and financed repairs on a section of road damaged during the spill. Local leaders dismissed these gestures as superficial, alleging that officials were paid to portray the incident as accidental.

CDM denied negligence, stating that all processing occurs within the facility and insisting that no contamination existed before the November event. The company, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, has long been criticised by human rights advocates.

Hubert Tshiswaka, head of the DRCs Institute for Human Rights Research and a member of the investigative commission, has spent years pressing CDM to meet its legal obligations, including the payment of mining royalties. He questioned how the company received approval to build on a hilltop where runoff naturally flows into surrounding neighbourhoods.

While the spill revealed what investigators called a disregard for basic safety standards with grave environmental consequences, mining minister Louis Watum Kabamba acknowledged that public authorities also failed in oversight. Our administration should have fulfilled its role, he admitted.

Author: Natalie Monroe