In November of last year, Vedanta’s Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) was fined in court for polluting the very river it had poisoned four years earlier in the north of the country.
In November 2006, effluents cascaded from a burst slurry pipeline into the Kafue river, raising chemical concentrations to 1,000% of acceptable levels for copper, 77,000% of those for manganese and 10,000% for cobalt.
Following the most recent event, the UK company was also found guilty of willfully failing to report it to the authorities. KCM’s lawyer Mr Elijah Banda reportedly told the court that the company “was remorseful and…had undertaken necessary measures to mitigate the damage caused and to prevent future incidents.”
Of course, that’s exactly what Vedanta had promised after the disaster back in 2006.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10613.