I think we can illuminate the problems of our watershed by comparing our issues and solutions with those faced in other watersheds, especially ones with very socio-economic and political realities. Several newsletters ago, I did this with the Danube River in Bulgaria comparing the problems of the 110-mile Patuxent River and it’s seven Counties with that considerably longer European river that spans 11 countries. This past summer your Riverkeeper journeyed to Zambia in order to look at the Kafue River while on a mission for Waterkeeper Alliance to evaluate a potential new Waterkeeper program there. My traveling companion was Hudson Riverkeeper Alex Mattheison.

Resettled Residents

We visited villages that had been relocated due to wholesale devastation of their water supply created by the largest open pit mining excavation in the world, We also saw first hand the toll and scars that unrestrained surface mining takes on the surrounding land and waterways. Zambia, for context, is among the poorest of nations on earth in spite of the enormous mineral wealth harvested by multi-national corporations. From the copper mining flow into the waterways mine drainage mine waste, creating severe water quality problems caused by decades of heavy industry that by its very nature rips ore from the earth and discards the resulting waste on people lacking any political power at all to fight back and protect themselves or the waters.

Largest Open Pit Mine in Africa
The Zambian government recently passed tougher environmental regulations but enforcement of the laws is challenged by limited government resources and powerful corporations that have every incentive to put profit before the environment. The citizens effected by the mining industry often lack the political or economic clout to do much more than eke out an existence on some of the toughest and most drought ridden lands on earth located near the Kalahari desert. By comparison, in America, our natural resource wealth consists of (formerly) robust fisheries, sprawling fields of agriculture, lucrative forestry industries and much more. Americans also have the First Amendment and a culture of donorship and philanthropy to support citizen action and rebut government inaction. However, Zambians face nearly impossible choices between propping up their struggling economy and their economic reliance on foreign investment to exploit the mineral wealth of the country. Political will to protect the environment is often beholden to the massive corporations expending hundreds of millions of dollars to wrest riches from the earth, the waterways and from anywhere else it might be found.

What we share with Zambians is the difficult tension between those seeking to privatize resource wealth contrasted with the need to protect poor or less empowered citizens and the resources they depend on and are entitled to. The most striking contrast I noted was the stunning resource wealth that still exists in our country but that eludes Zambia. America is a relatively young civilization with a comparatively brief history of resource exploitation from industrialization. Zambia, while it has changed its name and political regime, is fundamentally a very old civilization and resource wealth is primarily accessible if one uses heavy industry. Agriculture has a weaker presence there, as does forestry and commercial fishing. The notion of applying sustainable practices in a country that lacks roads, basic telecommunications and cannot feed its citizens makes it vivid and obvious that water quality concerns would ever compete with the many other legitimate priorities of government.

Mine Drainage in a Stream
The lesson I brought home is that the difference between a first world country like America and a third world country like Zambia is foremost one of values but also of inherent wealth. More wealth matters very little when the reigning establishment is tightly fused with and dependent on the resource polluters. In the case of Zambia, the government takes a percentage of what is earned by industry. In America the polluting institutions pay taxes, employee citizens and have other ties to the host communities. In neither place do the corporate polluters adequately protect the public or remunerate the community for the permanent damage done to the commons. In America, the mechanisms of corporate control are less obvious and much harder to unravel. In fact, people are often confused in America about the exact source of the pollution and who the bad actors really are. There is a vague sense that we are all part of the problem, even though there are some sources that are egregiously problematic. In Zambia the problems are clearer cut. More black and white.

In the coming years of more stringent resource, we should clear the fog of confusion about what these problems actually are, their sources and what problematic alliances exist between business and industry. Our strategies to combat these forces that can suck the life our of our economy need to be proportional to the harm. For examples, while rain barrels and trash cleanups are necessary, we need to keep clear in our minds that these are not plausible solutions to bad wastewater plants, non compliant dischargers and poor stormwater management. Likewise in Zambia, promoting individual accountability for environmental practices does nothing to stem the losses created by those acting in bad faith toward the environment who are not doing their share. At least in America our social wealth and legal system affords us far more and better advocacy tools like the First Amendment, and also due process of law to act on behalf of preservation and solve the problems even where the government is over a barrel. Comparatively speaking, I saw that environmentalists in Zambia tread a much finer line between defending their rights and incurring the wrath of very, very powerful interests who are a law unto themselves. I easily imagine that a private citizen in Zambia who lacked governmental and political support, would have an exceedingly hard time challenging the commercial mining interests. Here, citizens have the right to do so but far too few of us actually exercise those rights. Zambia has many beautiful and special resource treasures, so does America. In both places, it us up to the citizens to make clean water a reality.