Railway deal and a toxic spill to top agenda as Chinese premier visits Zambia

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will arrive in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Wednesday, with a US$1.4 billion railway modernisation deal high on his agenda.

But Li could also face political fallout from a toxic spill at a copper mine in the country’s north. Two Chinese mining firms have been sued over the incident that has been described as an “ecological catastrophe” by farmers.

It will be the first visit to Zambia by a top Chinese leader since 2007, and Li’s first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. He will continue on to Johannesburg in South Africa on Friday for the G20 summit that begins on Saturday.

In February, 50 million litres of acidic waste from a tailings dam run by Sino-Metals Leach Zambia and NCF Africa Mining – subsidiaries of Chinese state-owned firms – contaminated the Kafue River, near the city of Kitwe.

The disaster destroyed farmland and has prompted nearly 200 Zambian farmers to file an US$80 billion lawsuit against the companies, demanding compensation and long-term environmental remediation work.

Li’s visit also follows China’s agreement to provide US$1.4 billion to overhaul and run a dilapidated 1,860km (1,155-mile) railway that connects Zambia’s copper belt region to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean – a key alternative to South African ports.