Kitwe Vocational Training Center And Its Operational Challenges

By Paul Shalala

Entrance to KVTC workshop -Pictures by Kelvin Kawana

The intention was good but the implementation veered completely off course.

The idea was to train mechanics, electricians, metal fabricators and other specialists in like fields.

And that is why Kitwe Vocational Training Center (KVTC) was established.

KVTC was established in 1998 at the workshop for the now defunct United Bus Company of Zambia in Kitwe’s Racecourse area.

The institution enherited a state of the art workshop which over the years has been under utilized.

The institution is not living according to its ideals.

Over the years, equipment has run down, dust has gathered and the relevance of the institution is slowly being lost.

The students’ hostels are a sorry site.

Cooking is done on an element mounted on bricks.

Illegal electrical connections are the order of the day.

This is were male students cook their meals

Higher Education Minister Professor Nkandu Luo toured the institution last week and she was shocked with what she found.

In the male student’s hostel, she found first year students chatting on the veranda which is used as a kitchen.

She took to task the Principal Jolly Chembe for not providing proper cooking utensils and cleaning the hostels.

“Honourable Minister I didn’t know about this problem here. I wish the Maintenance Officer was here to tell me why this place is this dirty,” said Mr Chembe.

In the workshop, equipment is not properly stored.

Dust accumulates on the items used for lectures because most of them are not properly secured.

Clearly, KVTC is a mess.

“There is no order here. This institution is too dirty. If students are not taught to clean after they cook, they will also go with that habit in their homes. What society will we have?” said Professor Luo when she addressed members of staff and management.

However, in terms of potential, this institution can make money.

Higher Education Minister Prof Nkandu Luo talking to students  

In 2013, it won a contract and supplied 11,000 desks to the Ministry of General Education.

The institution wants more of such contracts to offset the K2.5 million debt it has accumulated.

“We have in the past few months submitted two separate tenders to supply 15,000 single sit desks and another 15,000 double sit desks to two separate institutions. We are asking for government to deliberately give such contracts to institutions like ours so that we can meet our financial obligations,” said KVTC Board Chairman Wilbroad Chisunka.

Problems at KVTC are many.

Workers called off their two weeks strike a few days ago.

They are owed their January and February salaries.

The institution also wrote to the Nkana Water and Sewerage Company to disconnect it from its water supply due to its failure to settle bills.

Currently, the institution uses water from boreholes.

In all these problems, government officials cite leadership as a contributing factors to the institution’s challenges.

“The board here at KVTC must start thinking outside the box. They will have themselves to blame if they are dissolved. This institution has the capacity to raise its own funds without relying on government grants,” said newly appointed Kitwe District Commissioner Binwell Mpundu when he toured the institution two weeks ago to familiarize himself with its operations.

Inside the KVTC workshop

Due to all these challenges, even the student enrolment for 2017 has dropped drastically.

The institution has a student capacity of 600 but only 300 have enrolled this year.

In terms of accommodation, KVTC has a bed capacity of 137 but only 93 students are in boarding.

Despite all these challenges, the good news is that the Ministry of Higher Education has increased its annual grant allocation to the institution.

For this financial year, the Ministry has added K500,000 to the institution’s grant which may help to turn around things at KVTC.

Hopefully, the institution will soon stand tall and weather the storm.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This blogger also did this story as a documentary and it aired on TV1's Morning Live program on 23 February 2017. The YouTube link to the video is here: KVTC Documentary

Investigations Into Kafue River Pollution Completed

An aerial view of the Kafue river on the Copperbelt

By Paul Shalala in Ndola

The Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) has completed its investigation on seven mining firms on the Copperbelt over last week's pollution of the Kafue River.

ZEMA Northern Region Manager Gift Sikaundi says the investigations team finished collecting samples from all suspicious sites and handed them over to three separate laboratories.

"We have handed over the samples to the Water Resources Management Authority laboratory in Lusaka, the Alfred Knight laboratory in Kitwe and the Nkana Water and Sewerage Company laboratory in Kitwe. We expect the results after seven days," said Mr Sikaundi during an interview at his Ndola office.

He has disclosed that during the investigation, ZEMA inspectors collected samples from various dams, reservoirs and streams in Chingola and Mufulira.

On Thursday last week, ZEMA launched investigations against the seven mining firms after sulphate was detected in the Kafue River the source of water supply to Kitwe, Kalulushi and Chambeshi.

The seven mining firms all discharge water into the Mwambashi stream which eventually ends up in the Kafue river.

The companies being investigated are Konkola Copper Mines, Mopani Copper Mines, NFC Africa Mining, Chambeshi Copper Smelter, Chambeshi Metals, Sino Metals and Bollore Africa Mining.

The investigations team took four days to collect samples from all water reservoirs and dams where the firms dispose off their effluents.

The discovery of the sulphate on Monday last week forced Nkana Water and Sewerage Company to shutdown its water supply to its customers for two days, leaving Kitwe's over 500,000 residents without clean running water.

The supply was only restored after the utility neutralised the sulphate.

The pollution is believed to have happened in the Mwambashi stream in Chingola District.

The investigators further believe that the contaminated water flowed from the Mwambashi stream to the Kafue river where Nkana Water and Sewerage Company detected it.

Zambia Investigates Seven Major Mining Firms For Pollution

ZEMA inspectors after collecting samples at Muntimpa Dam

By Paul Shalala

Zambia's environment watchdog has launched investigations on seven major multi-national mining firms following the polluting of Kafue river, the source of drinking water for the country's second largest city Kitwe.

Four of the seven companies being investigated are Chinese owned.

The largest mining investor in Zambia, Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) a subsidiary of London-listed Vedanta Resources PLC, Mopani Copper Mines a subsidiary of the Anglo-Swiss multi-national Glencore, Chinese owned NFC Africa Mining PLC, Chambeshi Metals, Chambeshi Copper Smelter, Sino Metals and Bollore Mining Limited are all under investigation.

On Monday, the Kafue river and its tributary Mwambashi were polluted with sulphate which forced the Nkana Water and Sewerage Company to shut down its operations, leaving the  over 500,000 residents of Kitwe without running water for 48 hours.

On Thursday, the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) launched the investigations on the seven mining firms because they all discharge their effluent into the Mwambashi stream which was the source of the pollution.

In the past three days, ZEMA inspectors have been testing water at Muntimpa Tailings Dam in the mining town of Chingola where KCM discharges its effluent before it flows into the Mwambashi stream which eventually offloads its water into the Kafue river.

The lead investigator in the exercise Gift Sikaundi says results of the tests carried out at Muntimpa Tailings Dam are expected to be made public next week on Monday.

"We have collected samples from Muntimpa Tailings Dam and we are analysing them in the laboratory right now. We are hoping to get a conclusive result on Monday," said Mr Sikaundi who is also ZEMA's Manager for the Northern Region of Zambia.

He also revealed that the institution wrote letters to all the seven multinational companies demanding that they hand over their test results from their respective discharge for the past 30 days but only four of them have complied.

"So far, only KCM, NFC Africa Mining, Chambeshi Copper Smelter and Mopani Copper Mines have submitted their reports. The remaining three didn't submit by yesterday's deadline. Despite that, we will conduct our own investigation and catch the firm which polluted the water."

Zambia's water regulator the Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) has also joined the probe.

Inspectors from WRMA today joined their counterparts from ZEMA during their investigations in the mining town of Chingola.

ZEMA is a government agency under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources while WAMA is under the Ministry of Energy and Water Development.

Of the seven being investigated, KCM has more allegations of pollution than the remaining six.

ZEMA Inspector Ray Chifwaila testing the acidity of the dam

In the past, the Indian-owned mining giant has been tried, convicted and fined by the Zambian courts for pollution.

The firm and its Indian parent company Vedanta Resources PLC are currently sued in London for polluting over 1,800 Zambian citizens.

And a Kitwe-based environmental activist Lovemore Muma says ZEMA needs to be more proactive when dealing with pollution cases in the mining sector.

"The current case where ZEMA is investigating the pollution of the Kafue river shows that ZEMA is reactive and not proactive. Imagine if Nkana Water and Sewerage Company did not detect the sulphate in the river, was ZEMA going to detect it? What is happening to other rivers which are not tapped by water utilities? This is worrying," said Mr Muma who is the Executive Director of The Earth Organisation, a civil society organisation which campaigns for the environment.

He further says ZEMA must be strengthened by being transformed into an authority which will have powers to prosecute environmental offenders as opposed to just investigating and publishing its findings.

This case has received considerable media attention in the country.

Environmental Inspectors Start Probe On Kafue River Pollution

ZEMA inspectors picking samples at Mutimpa Tailings Dam

By Paul Shalala in Chingola

The Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) has commenced investigations to establish the mining firm which polluted the Kafue river with sulphur forcing the Nkana Water and Sewerage Company to shutdown water supply to Kitwe for two days.

On Monday, the utility detected high levels of sulphur in the river and shutdown its water supply to Zambia's second largest city Kitwe, leaving its over 500,000 residents without water.

Water was only restored late on Wednesday after Nkana Water and Sewerage Company neutralised the sulphur in its reservoirs.

According to the utility, sulphur was discharged into the Mwambashi stream and it flowed into the Kafue river where the utility gets its water for residents of the mining towns of Chambeshi, Kitwe and Kalulushi.

Bivan Saluseki, the spokesperson for Nkana Water and Sewerage Company said the shutdown was done to protect people's lives and the firm was doing everything possible to ensure no one is harmed.

And Kitwe District Commissioner Chanda has pointed the blame at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), the country's largest mining investor which runs mines in several towns on the Copperbelt region.

"As government we will not allow KCM to continue polluting our water sources. We shall put up punitive measures to stop this practice," said Mr Kabwe in a telephone interview.

KCM is a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources PLC, a London-listed mining firm.

The firm runs the Konkola and Nchanga mines in Chingola.

Today, a team of inspectors from ZEMA visited Muntimpa Tailings Dam in Chingola's Kasompe area to test the water for sulphur.

Muntimpa is the largest tailings dam in Zambia and its estimated to hold over two million cubic meters of tailings material from KCM's operations.

The dam contains both natural water from nearby streams and effluent from the mines.

Water from this dam flows into the Mwambashi stream which discharges its water into the Kafue, one of Zambia's largest river

Water flows out of Mutimpa Dam into the Mwambashi stream

The inspectors were led by Ray Chafilwa, a Kitwe-based ZEMA inspector.

They collected water samples from various points on the dam and also tested the water for acidity.

The collected water has been taken to a laboratory and results from the samples are expected to be released tomorrow.

This is the second time environmental inspectors from ZEMA have inspected KCM facilities within 24 hours.

KCM is not new to allegations of polluting rivers on the Copperbelt.

It has in the past been convicted and fined by Zambian courts for pollution.

Currently, there is an ongoing court case on KCM and its parent company Vedanta in London were activists have sued the Indian-owned mining giant on behalf of the over 1,800 Zambian residents who have been affected by the alleged pollution.