Saturday, 6 Apr 2002

KITWE, Zambia

I have very few things on my agenda today: checking my email, making a few phone calls, arranging to pick up the ticket for my trip to Costa Rica next week, and meeting the Munkulungwe farmers in Ndola.

On my way to work, I picked up a couple of newspapers and was distressed to read reports of two mining accidents, one of them fatal. After reading the sad news, I asked a friend in Lusaka to pick up my plane ticket from the travel agency, and then made another call to follow up on an insurance claim on behalf of two families whose children were burnt by sulfuric acid.

The story of the burns is a sad one. Last August, a Zambia Railways train carrying sulfuric acid for use in the mines derailed very close to a mining town, and 80 tons of sulfuric acid were released into the environment. Zambia Railways failed to secure the accident scene, as required by law. Later that morning, two young boys who live close to the derailment went to the scene and started scooping up the pools of acid. In the process, one of the boys burned his face and severely damaged his eye, while the other badly burned his chest. Zambia Railways was focused on getting the acid containers back on the tracks and did not help get the children to a hospital, leaving all care to the parents.

When news of the two children reached CBE, we initiated legal action against Zambia Railways. The company opted to settle out of court and compensate the families. When I called the company’s managing director this morning, the insurance representative promised me the compensation would be available early next week.

After that was settled, Grace Edwards-Jones and I set off for Munkulungwe and arrived around mid-day for our meeting with the farmers. We answered some final questions about the surveys we’d distributed and then began conducting individual interviews. The interviews ran until 4.00 p.m., but we didn’t have time to talk with all the farmers and will have to finish tomorrow.